


Forgiveness

by sergeanthax



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 01:45:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6495940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sergeanthax/pseuds/sergeanthax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frisk thought that all of his problems were over. He’d managed to escape the underground and free the Monsters, making some good friends in the process. However, not everyone is so friendly, and Frisk still has another problem to surmount: his family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thanks for checking out my work. If you haven't already, it would be a good idea to read my short story "Lost Innocence". Feel free to leave me comments, suggestions, or praise if you think I've earned it. I'd love to hear feedback to improve the next one I'm writing.
> 
> Enjoy.

The sun rose on a new and beautiful day. It cast its beautiful array of colors throughout the sky, a sky bigger than Frisk had ever seen before. The warm dawn light reflected over the treetops, which were beginning to leaf out. The others had already left to explore the new world, and Frisk was unable to bring himself to look away. The warm rays of the rising sun felt good on Frisk’s face, counteracting the brisk morning air. Frisk breathed deeply, smelling the fresh outdoor air, a welcome change from the stale air of the Underground. Frisk had his hands in his pockets to keep them warm.

Toriel also seemed to be enjoying the view. Toriel is a monster, specifically a Boss Monster, the strongest of all monsters. Her body was distinctly humanoid, but her head was reminiscent of a goat. She easily stood 6 feet tall, and is covered in soft, white fur. She sported small horns which curved backward from her skull and had large, floppy ears. As always, she wore her trademark purple robe with white sleeves. The Delta Rune, the symbol of the monster kingdom, was embroidered on the center of the robe. Her deep brown eyes shown in the new dawn light. Frisk wondered how long it had been since she’d even seen the surface, let alone its beautiful dawn. She was the one to break the silence that had fallen as the others had left to explore the new world. “Frisk…” she said quietly. He didn’t turn to look at her, but she could tell he was still listening.

“You came from this world, right? So you must have a place to return to, do you not? What will you do now?”

Frisk was unsure what the future would hold. He knew that immediately he would need to get back to his family. A small part of him wanted to stay with Toriel, knowing what she had done to try and protect him from the dangers of the Underground. But, his desire to see his parents far outweighed his desire to stay with Toriel. They would be worried sick by his sudden disappearance. It wouldn’t be a far walk for Frisk to get back home, either. He could even see the town from the overlook.

So Frisk spoke up “I have family nearby. I’m going to go and see them again. I’m sure they’re worried sick about the fact that I’m missing.”

“Ah….” Toriel said, a hint of disappointment in her voice. Frisk suspected that she had held at least some hope that he would stay with her. That she would be able to have a child to fill the void that had been left by the death of her two children. She looked at the sunrise, gathering up the courage for the second time to let Frisk go on his own.

Toriel turned and began to slowly walk away on the path to Frisk’s right, leading down into the woods. She stopped and turned back to Frisk, leaving him with a parting word that promised that they would meet again.

“Frisk. See you around.” She then turned and hurried away, worried that if she stayed any longer Frisk would see the tears forming in her eyes.

Frisk called out after her “I’ll be back. I promise!” With that, she was out of earshot and he was left alone with the sunrise. He stayed for a while longer, watching the new day dawn on a new era.

 

* * *

 

Frisk had been by himself away from home many times before. Even though he was not old enough to drive, he didn't need to for the most part. He was able to get everywhere on bike, or even just walking, given that his town wasn't all that big. He didn't know exactly where his town was in relation to the exit, but he had seen it from the cliff overlook. It was somewhere to the southeast of the overlook, so Frisk knew he needed to head in that direction to get back home. He pulled out Alphys' phone and lo and behold, it had a compass function which Frisk took advantage of. Frisk could walk pretty much in a straight line to the southeast and get close enough to the town to find his way back home again.

The trees were just beginning to grow their leaves, and the cool, crisp air was welcome to Frisk. It wasn’t easy walking without a trail to follow. As he hiked down the trail getting back to the main road, he thought on all that had happened to him in the past day. Considering the short length of time he was down there, it felt like an eternity. He also thought about the circumstances that had caused him to fall into the Underground. If it wasn’t for Dan’s idea to spend the night up on Mt. Ebott, all of his adventures in the Underground would not have happened at all. He hoped Dan had made it back home safely without him, and he knew Dan had to be feeling some guilt that he had let Frisk disappear like that. Frisk had initially cursed his luck, when he fell into the hole while trying to get some distance from Dan to take a leak at night. He wondered if he would ever be so lucky to fall that far again without having any more damage than bruises and scrapes.

It didn't take Frisk more than 30 minutes to be able to get to the very edge of town. As Frisk approached, the buildings he saw were old and decrepit brick affairs, the roofs in bad shape and the insides tore up. They’d been around a long time as far as Frisk knew. It wasn't a part of town that he frequented often, but he knew where he was and which way his house was. He stopped and took note of where he was, hoping that he could use this spot to be able to find his way back to the Underground exit. To be safe, Frisk picked up a piece of rock and scraped a big 'X' on the brick wall of one of the derelict buildings. Frisk dropped the rock and brushed his hands off, examining his handiwork. It'll have to do. He didn't have anything else that he could use to mark the location, unfortunately. Frisk then continued on his way to his house.

Frisk managed to get home without any issue. He felt so relieved to see his home again. Their house was a small, quaint affair, but it was big enough to be comfortable for everyone. The house was painted a nice pastel blue, with white windowsills. Flowers were beginning to bloom in the front beds. The front porch was wide enough to have a swinging chair hanging from the ceiling. Frisk loved to sit out in that chair when the weather was nice outside, which wouldn’t include today. It was too cold to sit around outside.

Frisk climbed the stairs to the front porch. Looking at where the sun was, he didn't expect to see anyone at home. Both of his parents would be at work by this time. He'd go inside and give them a call. They would probably drop whatever they were doing and come home. They were probably worried sick about him. He took out his keys, which thankfully didn't get lost, and he unlocked the door and went inside.

He had to pass through the living room to get to the kitchen. The living room had a large couch with a dark green upholstery. On the other side of the room there was a tan chair. Both of these were oriented to face the TV, which was on the opposite wall. There were a couple of small tables situated next to the couch and chair, and these had an odd assortment of items on them. The red and black striped curtains were pulled shut, which darkened the room considerably. The house was eerily quiet, only the faint hum of the various appliances in the house being audible. Frisk wasn’t in the house alone often, and he’d never noticed how quiet it was.

The first thing Frisk did when he got in the house was head to the kitchen where the phone was. The kitchen was just as Frisk remembered it. It was a small affair, painted in warm colors which accented the light blue cabinets. The sink was empty, and Frisk could hear the sound of the dishwasher’s faint hum, indicating it was running. Frisk’s family still maintained a landline, like many of the residents did thanks to the poor cell phone coverage in the area. He picked up the receiver and dialed his mom’s number. It didn’t take her long to pick up.

“Hello?” An alto voice said. Frisk recognized it as Molly, his mom.

“Mom? It’s me, Frisk. I’ve made it home safely.”

“Frisk? Oh thank heavens! Are you ok? Are you hurt?” Her voice began to get emotional.

“No mom, I’m fine. Nothing more than some small cuts and bruises.”

“Oh no, what happened? Where did you go? Were you kidnapped or something?!” Molly said quickly, her voice rising in volume.

“I wasn’t kidnapped, but I had a rough time some places. Listen, can I explain this to you when you get home?”

“Uh, what? Why can’t you explain it to me here over the phone?”

Frisk hesitated. “I’m not sure you’d believe me if you didn’t see my face to know I was telling the truth.”

Molly was confused by this answer. What could have possibly happened to him that she wouldn’t believe him? “Frisk, you’d better stay put. I’m going to head home, and I’ll call your dad on the way home. I will see you in about ten minutes. Don’t go anywhere, I love you.”

“I love you too mom.” Frisk hung up the phone.

Now Frisk had a predicament on his hands. He suspected his parents would think he was loony, or at the very least had a serious concussion from his fall, if he tried to tell him about the monsters. On the other hand, he had to tell them _something_ ; it wasn’t like they were just going to forget that he disappeared without a trace for an entire week. It was quite the quandary for Frisk.

Frisk’s stomach rumbled. He’d forgotten that he hadn’t had any human food in over a week. Frisk wasn’t sure about the nutrition content of magical energy, which he’d been told is what monster food is converted into. He’d never felt hungry after eating monster food, but he also never felt quite sated either. Either way, Frisk decided to contemplate what to tell his parents over a sandwich. He pulled a half-eaten loaf of bread from a cabinet, along with a jar of peanut butter and honey. He set to work, creating his quick and easy meal.

Frisk had completed his piece of culinary perfection and was halfway through eating it when he heard Molly’s car pull up to the house. He set his sandwich down on a plate and walked over to the front door, brushing his hands off along the way. He opened it to find Molly running up to the front door. Molly was wearing her usual business attire, a nice blouse with slacks and dress shoes. Her short brown hair was done expertly, along with her makeup which was simple but effective. Molly was still taller than Frisk but not much, and had a light complexion, with her hazel eyes appearing blue thanks to her bright blouse. She’s the one that Frisk got his hazel eyes from. Seeing him, her eyes lit up with joy, and she ran up to Frisk and held him in a tight embrace. Frisk loved being close to his mom again, smelling the faint flowery smell of the perfume that his mom always wore.

“Oh Frisk, I’m so happy to see you. We hadn’t given up hope that you wouldn’t come home, but we were beginning to fear the worst.” Molly pulled away and looked her son in the eyes. Frisk could see some tears forming in her eyes. “What happened to you?”

Frisk was silent for a moment, and he averted his eyes. He was not looking forward to trying to explain the extraordinary events that had previously happened to him. Frisk suggested that they both take a seat on the couch, because the explanation was going to take a while. Frisk sat on one end of the couch, its green upholstery soft, but supportive. Frisk took a deep breath, and begun explaining what had happened, starting with how he fell into the Underground. Molly’s eyes had gotten wide when she heard that he had fallen a great distance, to no apparent harm. As he was telling the tale of his journey through the Underground, Frisk left out all of the times that he had been harmed (and killed on occasion), and left out his encounters with Flowey’s monstrous form and Asriel. Frisk knew his parents would react poorly to the news that their son had been harmed multiple times, and talking about extradimensional beings would have destroyed what little credibility he had. He would tell them someday, but he didn’t want to talk about that today.

When Frisk had finished, he looked at his mom. Molly had quietly listened to Frisk, almost never interrupting him. She had been pretty expressive throughout the story, but now her face was unreadable. Frisk waited with bated breath for her reaction.

“Are you sure you’re ok? You didn’t bang your head too hard, did you?” Molly reached out her hand and gently smoothed Frisk’s hair. Frisk’s heart sank. She was thinking he’d hallucinated the entire adventure. Frisk knew it was all real. Much of it had been too real.

Desperation leaked into Frisk’s voice. He waved his arms expressively as he spoke. “Mom, honest to goodness that’s what happened. I told you that you wouldn’t believe me.” Frisk looked away from his mom, and crossed his arms.

Molly put her hand on Frisk’s shoulder. “Honey, I want to believe you, I really do. But surely you realize how outlandish your story is?” She looked at Frisk, her genuine care for him evident on her face.

Frisk was silent for a several moments. “What if I could prove it to you?” He said in a low tone.

Molly was taken aback. “Prove it? How?”

“By taking you to see them.” Frisk’s eyes were afire with determination.

Molly was unsure of what to do. She didn’t want to entertain fancies, but her son very clearly believed everything that he was saying. She decided she would wait for Norman, her husband and Frisk’s father, to get home. This seemed like the sort of thing that needed to be judged together.

“Frisk, we can talk about it some more once your father gets home. He shouldn’t be much longer, he was going to head out as soon as he could tie things up at work.”

At least she didn’t immediately exnay the idea. Frisk thought. It doesn’t mean I’m in the clear yet, they could still decide I’m not in my right mind.

After sitting in silence for a bit, Molly absentmindedly picked up the TV remote which was sitting on the table next to the couch and turned the TV on, changing the channel to some home and gardening show. Normally Frisk would have complained, but he was busy thinking about other ways to potentially convince his parents to trust him on this should they decide he was lying, whether out of ignorance or malice. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Molly wasn’t really paying much attention to the TV. Her attention was mostly on Frisk, trying to find any hint of deception, and not finding any. She was lost in thought, processing Frisk’s story. If Frisk was lying, he certainly could have come up with lies that would be more easily bought than that. Her gut told her that Frisk was telling the truth, and her gut was not usually wrong when it came to her kid.

Molly was right about Norman coming home. It had only been about 10 minutes before the front door opened and Norman came in, his coat and tie flapping around. Norman was around 6 foot, definitely taller than Frisk. He was a middle-aged, balding man who, while relatively fit, still carried around some extra pounds. He was dressed in his work attire today, an inexpensive, but sturdy, grey suit and bright blue tie.

Seeing his son, Norman ran up to Frisk, who got up off the couch, and gave him a big hug, squeezing Frisk. Frisk groaned a little bit as Norman pressed on some sore muscles, but Norman couldn’t hear it over his relieved sighs that Frisk was ok. Norman cherished the warm feeling of his son’s coarse hair on his neck.

“Frisk, oh we were worried sick about you. I could hardly get anything done today, ‘cause I was thinking about you.” Norman said.

“Sorry, Dad. It wasn’t like I meant to disappear.”

Norman pulled away, but left his hands on Frisk’s shoulders. His father’s strong grip was reassuring to Frisk. “Nonsense, all that matters is that you’re home safe.” Frisk’s father practically glowed with happiness.

“But, that does leave the question of what did happen.” Norman looked at Frisk expectantly.

“Dad, can we have a seat? This story is going to take a while to explain.”

They all sat down. Frisk took the chair opposite to the couch, and Norman and Molly sat next to each other on the couch. Molly was nervous at hearing Frisk’s story again. She reached out and clasped Norman’s hand, who, in turn, squeezed her hand.

“Dad, you know I wouldn’t lie to you, right?” Frisk said hesitantly.

Norman looked troubled. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I believe you?”

“It’s just…what happened to me sounds like it came out of a fantasy novel. It doesn’t sound real, but I promise you it was.” Norman looked at his wife, hoping to find some answers in her expression, but he found none. He could only tell she wanted him to hear what Frisk had to say.

Frisk took a deep breath, and for the second time that day told his story. Frisk was careful to only tell his dad the stuff that he’d told his mom. It didn’t take as long to explain the second time, as Frisk had gotten the details right telling Molly. When Frisk had finished, the room was silent for a several seconds. The tension was almost palpable, the silence only broken by the faint hum of the furnace.

Norman looked over at Molly, who was still holding his hand. Reading her expression, he could tell she still had deep doubts about the authenticity of Frisk's story. To Norman, it seemed like Frisk had probably had some sort of hallucination, or maybe a series of very vivid dreams. It seemed far too impossible for Frisk's story to be true.

"Frisk, maybe we need to take you do the doctor to make sure you're alright." Norman said carefully.

Frisk began to get irritated. It was rare for his parents to not believe him, and he hated it when they didn't believe him, even more so now for Frisk. What reason would he have to create such an extravagant lie? He was not going to let it drop that quickly.

"See? I told you you wouldn't believe me, didn't I? I'm telling the truth!" Frisk said angrily.

Norman reached over and began rubbing Frisk's back. "I know you feel you're telling the truth, but surely you realize what you're proposing isn't possible? You know monsters don't exist." Norman said, trying to pacify Frisk.

"But they DO exist! I SAW them! I TOUCHED them. They were very, very real." Frisk took a deep breath, trying to keep calm. "Look, I'll make a deal with you guys. If you go with me to meet them, I'll go see as many doctors as you want me to. We can be there in a 40 or so minute walk, no problem. Y'all have nothing to lose by going. If there's nothing there, then you'll have every right to tell me I'm crazy and need help. But if there is, then you'll know I'm not crazy." Frisk was dead serious, if a little desperate.

Molly thought for a moment. She spoke with confidence. "Alright, Frisk. If you're that sure about it, we'll go see these 'monsters'. Let your father and I change clothes first, though."

Norman spun around to stare at molly with utter disbelief in his eyes. "What? Molly, lets not entertain his flights of fancy. He's too old for games like this."

Molly shrugged. "Frisk is right. The worst that could happen is that we spend a couple hours getting some exercise. That's a small price for verifying his claim. Plus, if we take him up on his offer, he'd honor his word about seeing the doctors, wouldn't you Frisk?" Frisk hated the slightly patronizing tone, but he would tolerate it for now. He'd prove them wrong.

"Yeah. You know I'd honor my word." Frisk said.

"See? Then it's settled. We'll go change and then be on our way." Molly said. She got up and headed towards their room. Norman rubbed his eyes before following her, shutting the door behind them.

"I can't believe you're entertaining this stupid fantasy." Norman said. He sat down on their bed.

"Calm down Norman, I don't believe him either. We'll go along with it, and when we prove him wrong we'll get him the help he needs."

They heard Frisk call through the door. "You better dress for some hiking. The way to get there is through the woods." Norman stared at Molly, unamused. Molly simply shrugged and started picking out some different clothes.


	2. Misunderstanding

After everyone had changed clothes into something more suitable for hiking, they all set out. Frisk walked back to the area at the edge of town where he remembered making the ‘X’ on the wall, his parents in tow. He then pulled out his phone and used the compass to guide them through the woods. The woods were not overly dense, but still resisted the movements of the small group. It had warmed up some outside, and Frisk was soon shedding his hoodie, feeling the cool breeze on his bare arms. Eventually, the trio were standing in front of the cave. Frisk hadn’t seen any monsters all the way to here, so he figured there probably weren’t any running around. Frisk turned to his parents and addressed them. 

“Listen, I need you guys to stay here for a bit. I need to go on ahead and get things ready for you. I should easily be back in five minutes. I’m heading in there-“ Frisk pointed to the mouth of the cave, a stale breeze wafting out of the cave. “-if there’s any problems, which there shouldn’t be, ok?” 

“No Frisk. No way we’re letting you go alone.” Norman said gruffly

Frisk was exasperated. “Look, I need to go in there and make sure that they’re ready to meet y’all. It’s not like they’ve seen humans besides me in a long time. Just five minutes.”

Norman chewed on Frisk’s statement, eventually deciding it wasn’t worth the fight. “Fine. If you’re not back in five we’re coming in for you.” Frisk breathed a sigh of relief.

Frisk stepped into the cave and started walking towards the back of the cave. The light at the end grew until he could see the stone pillars framing the entrance. He turned the corner, memories flashing through his mind’s eye before he could shove them back down to the back of his mind. Frisk turned the corner again and was greeted with Asgore’s throne room. It was currently empty, and Frisk was beginning to get concerned that the monsters hadn’t come back from their exploration of the surface. Dust motes danced through the artificial sunlight filtering into the room, the golden flowers covering the floor of the grand room glistening in the light. Asgore’s throne sat in the middle, its polished gold frame eye-catching. It was unoccupied, and Frisk wondered if Asgore ever even used it.

Frisk continued down the hallway, approaching Asgore’s home. He could hear voices from a distance away, too muffled to understand. He could pick out several distinct voices. As he approached, they started to become clearer.

“…I-I-I can’t just m-make our technology w-work with h-human’s.” The stutter told Frisk that the voice was certainly Alphys.

“Why not? You made Mettaton, how much harder could it be to send a message out to humanity? I believe you can do it!” This voice sounded feminine, but had a rough edge to it. Frisk thought it was Undyne.

“Now Undyne, you know that our understanding of human technology is limited. We were just freed today, after all.” Said a deep, bass voice. This one was unmistakably Asgore.

By this point in the conversation Frisk had approached the staircase leading up to Asgore’s home. Frisk picked up his step knowing that at least a few of his friends were right there. Frisk walked up the staircase, noting that they were not in the entryway. He heard the voices to his right, towards the dining room and he walked that way.

Frisk peeked into the room. The colorful array of monsters stood out immediately from the grey walls and floor. It seemed almost everyone was here. The room was just as he remembered leaving it. A dining table set in the far corner, with a yellow flower in a vase in the middle of the table. On the other side of the room was a fireplace with an overstuffed chair next to it. Toriel was currently occupying this chair, and the skeleton brothers were seated in front of the bookcase which sat just to the right of the fireplace. Alphys, Asgore, and Undyne were all seated using chairs from the table, and were facing the wall to Frisk’s right. 

Asgore looks similar to his ex-wife Toriel in many ways, but different in several key ways. He was certainly much burlier than his wife was, and his horns were much larger as well, curved more upwards compared to his wife’s. He also sported a mane of golden hair which transitioned smoothly into a beard of the same color. He also stood a good head above his wife. His attire was different as well, sporting a flower print button up shirt and brown slacks. Like his wife, he was barefoot, the rubbery pads on his paws doing just as good of a job as shoes.

Undyne, however, looked very different from her former boss. Instead of fur, she was covered in dark blue scales. She stood at about Asgore’s shoulder height, but Frisk knew she was strong enough to pick up Asgore without breaking a sweat, even though she wasn’t that buff. She had two small blue fins accented with red sticking out from the sides of her head, and had long red hair pulled back into a ponytail. Today she was wearing her usual black tank top, pants, and boots. One of her eyes had an eyepatch over it, though Frisk did not know what had happened to her eye, and had never felt the need to ask.

Sitting next to her was her new girlfriend, Alphys. Alphys was shorter than Undyne by at least a foot. She was lizard like, sporting yellow scales and a short, thick tail. She was wearing her round glasses and lab coat, as usual. Her nervous demeanor meant that she didn’t sit still, and was constantly fidgeting.

The two skeleton brothers Sans and Papyrus looked just as one might expect a skeleton to look. Though for both being brothers, they looked quite different. Sans had pinpricks of light in his eye sockets which served as his pupils, while Papyrus’ eye sockets were always empty. Papyrus was the tall and lanky brother. His attire was a costume that he had made for a costume party weeks ago and refused to take off. At least that’s what Sans had told Frisk. It looked similar armor that a superhero might wear in a comic. Sans, however was a short, stocky skeleton. He was wearing his trademarked blue hoodie, shorts, and slippers.

They continued to argue about the best ways to introduce themselves to the humans. Frisk needed to get things set up quickly, so he casually strolled into the room. Toriel was the first to spot him, as she was already facing towards entryway. A look of surprise passed across her face. “My child!” she exclaimed. Toriel got up from her chair and walked quickly towards Frisk. At the sudden outburst by Toriel, the others turned to look, and various expressions of joy and surprise crossed all of their faces at seeing Frisk again.

As Toriel was the first to get up, she was the first to get to Frisk. She dropped down on her knees and gave Frisk a big hug, which he appreciated. Frisk loved her warm, soft embrace, even if he felt sometimes like he didn’t deserve it. It didn’t take long for the others to start clamoring around to see the human. Toriel, almost reluctantly, let go of Frisk so that he could say hi to everyone. They were all giving their hellos to Frisk at the same time, and Frisk responded to each as best he could. After everyone had settled down, Toriel took the opportunity to speak to Frisk. “My child, I am so happy to see you. But, I have to ask,” she paused for a moment, reluctant to continue. “why are you here? Were you not able to find your family?” She looked concerned, and to alleviate her fears, Frisk responded “Nah, I found them. In fact, I brought them here so that they could all meet you.” Frisk smiled at the thought of his family meeting monsters for the first time. 

There were a mix of emotions in the room, though everyone was generally excited, if nervous, about meeting Frisk’s parents. Papyrus was first to speak “WHAT? THE TINY HUMAN HAS PARENTS? ARE THEY BIG HUMANS?”

“Yeah bro. did ‘ja think humans just appeared out of nowhere?” sans responded.

“OF COURSE NOT! I HAD JUST…NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT IT BEOFRE! EITHER WAY, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD BE HONORED TO MEET THE BIG HUMANS THAT THE LITTLE HUMAN CALLS PARENTS!”

“Yeah kid, I’d love to meet them. Maybe they might even find me _humerus_.“ Toriel giggled at the joke, while Papyrus moaned.

Undyne stomped the ground, the floorboards protesting to her immense strength, her trademark smile plastered on her face. “I’m pumped to meet Frisk’s parents! They must be really strong to raise a kid like you!” Frisk snickered a little bit. His dad was strong, but he would certainly lose in an arm-wrestling match with Undyne.

“Y-y-yes, m-meeting the human’s family s-sounds like fun!” Alphys said nervously.

“Frisk, I would be honored to meet your family.” Asgore said.

“I am looking forward to meeting the people that brought up such a sweet boy.” Toriel said. She winked at Frisk. Frisk responded in kind.

“Then it’s settled. We already were thinking of ways to introduce ourselves to humanity, what better way of getting started than meeting the family of the one who freed us?” Asgore said. The others murmured their assent.

“Great! I’ll go back and get them. They’re just outside the exit to the outside world. I’ll be back in a bit!” With that Frisk gave a little wave, turned on his heels and left the room, grinning ear to ear.

Frisk made the short walk back through the tunnels and throne room to where he’d left his family. Frisk met them halfway past the throne room. Evidently five minutes had passed and Frisk hadn’t noticed.

“There you are. We were just about to come and get you.” Molly said, relief in her voice.

“C’mon, let’s go. Everything is ready.” Frisk started to walk further into the cave, but paused shortly after beginning, wanting to say a few things before going forward. “Ok, so what you’re about to see is going to be kinda hard to swallow. Just don’t panic, or run, or whatever you might do.” Frisk’s statement was rewarded with anxious looks on both of his parent’s faces. “And what you’re about to see has to stay secret, at least for a while. Ok?” His parents consented.

With that, Frisk turned around and walked into the mouth of the cave. His family followed closely behind him. No one said anything until you reached Asgore’s throne room. Both parents were stunned by the number of flowers that covered the floor of the room.

“Wow, there’s so many of them.” Norman commented, awestruck.

“They look real.” Frisk’s mom said. She bent over and touched one, smelling it. It didn’t have much of a scent. “Definitely real.”

Frisk’s family members had spread around the room, trying to avoid stepping on the flowers. Though, this proved to be a challenge. At least the flowers appeared to be very hearty. Frisk enjoyed watching their awe at the light streaming through the stained glass windows, illuminating the bright yellow flowers. Frisk let them linger for a few moments before calling on them to move on. They all followed Frisk, wondering what else might be in store for them. Both of them were beginning to lose their belief that Frisk had made it all up. Frisk led them through the hallways and before long they were at the base of the stairs leading up to Asgore’s home. Frisk stopped again, to give one final warning. “Just remember what I said earlier. Don’t panic, nothing bad will happen to y’all.”

Their voices were audible from the base of the stairs. Frisk was not focusing on what they were saying. He was too concerned at the moment with making sure that his family got the best impression of the monsters he could give them. Frisk walked up the stairs slowly, his family following him. He reached the top and his family were close behind him. He walked towards the dining room, and the group of monsters inside were quick to acknowledge him. His family looked around Frisk…

And saw the group of monsters.

There were several beats of intense tension, nobody moving. Then, something clicked in Norman's mind, and he reached into the back of his pants, pulling out a small, black handgun. Norman owned the handgun for a long time, and had thought to bring it since he had no clue where Frisk was going to take them. Taking a proper shooting stance , he aimed the gun in the general direction of the Monsters, unsure which one to aim at. Fear caused his hands to start shaking, which he tried his hardest to steady. Then he reached out with one hand and grabbed Frisk's shoulder, trying to pull Frisk behind him.

"Frisk, get behind me." He said, the fear evident in his voice.

Frisk turned around, beginning to protest when he saw that his dad was pointing his gun towards the Monsters. Acting on instinct, Frisk jerked free of Norman's grip and ran to the center of the living room, spreading his arms and legs out to cover the Monsters. Molly moved behind Norman, afraid of the Monsters and the handgun.

"Frisk, get away from them!" Norman commanded. He kept the gun pointed in the general direction of the Monsters, but not directly at Frisk.

"No Dad, they won't hurt us! Put the gun down!" Frisk hollered.

"Frisk, I'm not going to say it again, get behind me!" Norman said, bordering on panic.

"No. I'm not going to let you hurt them, Dad." Frisk was dead serious.

Toriel snapped out of her stupor. “Frisk! Just do as he says!” she pleaded.

“Not until he puts the gun away.” Frisk said calmly.

Nobody moved for several more beats. Norman was unsure of what to do. Frisk was close enough to the Monsters that he wouldn't dare to shoot unless he didn't have any other choice, and as long as Frisk wasn't going to cooperate there was nothing Norman could reasonably do in the moment to get him away from the group without getting dangerously close to the Monsters. Panic continued to take over Norman's mind, making thinking harder and harder. Undyne became tired of the suspense, and decided to act. With the best of intentions, she leaped out of her chair towards Frisk, summoning a glowing blue spear into her hands. Frisk saw the motion out of the corner of his eye, and he started to call out, but he was too late. Norman jerked the gun toward Undyne, and the sudden motion was enough to cause Norman's trigger finger to twitch, setting off the chain of mechanisms in the gun to ignite the cartridge.

The deafening sound of a gunshot ripped through the room. The gunshot startled Undyne enough that she failed to land on her feet, and fell face-first into the ground, spear dematerializing. Frisk instinctively ducked, as did the Monsters. Frisk's ears were ringing from the deafening sound, and he looked around to see if anyone had gotten hit. At first glance, Frisk could not find any apparent injury on anyone. All of the Monsters were checking each other for injury as well.

Frisk's father was bordering on tears. He stood there, frozen in place with the smoking gun in his hands. For a several heart-wrenching seconds he was so sure he'd accidentally shot his son. Undyne had startled him so much that he'd instinctively pulled the trigger and jerked the gun in her general direction, even if he thought that nothing could cause him to shoot with his son so dangerously close to the bullet's trajectory. He couldn't forgive himself if he'd shot his son on accident. However, as Frisk didn't indicate any injury, Norman breathed a sigh of relief. 

Undyne got up into a sitting position, rubbing her head. She didn't feel any serious injury, other than a banged head and a bruised ego. She hadn't expected anything to be so loud so suddenly. Her ears ached from the noise, and she rubbed them too in an attempt to alleviate the pain.

The gun dropped to Norman's side, and then clattered to the floor. He fell on his knees weeping, all of the emotions proving to be overwhelming, the grown man practically shutting down. Frisk ran to his father, yelling over the ringing in his ears.

"Dad! Dad! It's ok! Nobody's hurt!" Frisk embraced his father, and Molly bent down to do the same. Norman wept in their embrace for a couple of minutes. The Monsters all stayed back, giving the small group some space. Getting up from the floor to return to her seat, a small hole that had not previously been there in the far wall of the room caught her eye. It made her weary of the small black device sitting on the ground next to Norman.

Once Norman had calmed down, he picked up the gun gingerly and handed it to Frisk. "Frisk." Norman sniffled. "Can you please unload that for me?"

Frisk took the gun and did as his father asked, ejecting the magazine and emptying the chamber, locking the slide back. The unspent cartridge hit the ground with a light metallic ringing sound. Frisk put the magazine into his pocket. Norman sniffled again. "Thank you. No more risk of me doing something stupid." He said. He almost broke into tears again.

"Yeah. No one's gonna get hurt today." Frisk said calmly. Everyone relaxed seeing the weapon disarmed. Frisk's father took a few deep breaths, calming himself down. Frisk gave the unloaded firearm back to his dad, who tucked it back into his pants.

Asgore spoke up. "It seems that everyone is in need of something to help calm nerves. Let me go make some tea." He got up and went into the kitchen, and the sounds of dishes being moved around carried into the living room. The room remained silent, an unresolved tension hanging in the air.

It didn't take Asgore long to come back with a tray and several cups. He served Frisk's parents first, who both took some even if they were usually not fans. Frisk took a cup as well, and smelling the aromatic drink told Frisk that Asgore had a very good idea. Asgore also passed steaming cups around to Toriel, Alphys, and Undyne before taking one himself. Papyrus and Sans both declined a cup.

Papyrus, unable to stand the quiet any longer, finally broke the silence. "Frisk! Are these humans your parents?!" He asked, in his usual loud way.

Frisk smiled. "Yeah, Papyrus. That's Norman, my Dad." Frisk pointed to his dad, who had finally got himself under control. "And that's Molly, my Mom." Frisk pointed to his mom. "Mom, Dad, meet Asgore, Undyne, Alphys, Toriel, Sans, and Papyrus." Frisk pointed to each as he said their names. Frisk's parents acknowledged each in turn, and they returned the gesture.

"Hello Frisk's parents! Frisk and I are the best of friends!"

“Oh?” Moly said, taking a sip of her tea.

“Yes, we dat-“ Papyrus began, but then changed his mind, his expression shifting around “-er…hung out! I offered him some of my gourmet spaghetti, which he loved! Ah, the joy of a fellow pasta lover! He even is a pretty good fighter! He nearly bested the great Papyrus, after all. If I hadn’t spared him, he would have certainly been captured!” Papyrus exclaimed, Frisk’s parents both wincing at his loud volume. They’d get used to it eventually.

Norman latched on to the last sentence the skeleton said. “Wait, how do you know he’s a good fighter?” The others, all looking concerned, waved at Papyrus, trying to get him to not respond next, but he didn’t pick up on the obvious cues.

“Yes, we fought! I wanted to capture him for-OW!” Papyrus exclaimed

Undyne had lept into action in her usual way, realizing that Papyrus was not going to shut up about attacking Frisk. The two wrestled on the ground, Undyne keeping Papyrus’ mouth shut. She was saying something to Papyrus that was hard to make out over the noise of the two squabbling. 

Toriel began berating Undyne’s childish behavior. “Undyne! That’s enough of that! I would expect better from you!”

Alphys also chimed in, a worried blush on her face. “U-U-Undyne, s-stop!”

Sans teleported to the other side of the room to keep himself out of the fray. Eventually Undyne let go and Papyrus set up, looking disgruntled while Undyne walked back over to her chair, sat down, and glared at Papyrus.

Frisk’s parents were both stunned by the sudden ferocity that Undyne tackled Papyrus with. It scared both of them to see Undyne move so quickly and so ferociously. Both parents were still determined to get to the bottom of why Papyrus called it a fight.

“You _fought?!_ Did you hurt my son?!” Norman’s tone rose, and began to imply violence.

The group of monsters all looked at each other, none of them wanting to answer the question. Eventually Undyne talked, her voice quiet. “Yes, he did fight your son. We all did, in one way or another.” The group all looked downcast, Asgore especially. “Monster fights though aren’t physical. We use magic attacks, which hit the SOUL, instead of the body. Your son’s SOUL was too strong for any of us to do real damage.”

Frisk bit his lip, not refuting Undyne’s statement even though he knew this was not true. He’d died many times to Undyne in the interest of not killing anyone else, even though she didn’t know he had. Frisk’s expression further betrayed his thoughts, causing his face to adopt a grave countenance. Frisk, however, wasn’t paying attention and his dad saw his face, and he tried to hide it behind his usual neutral mask, but the damage had already been done. His father could read that expression easily, and could draw the conclusion.

“Frisk, they hurt you didn’t they? More than they themselves realize.” Norman said with malice. Everyone in the room heard his statement, hurt by the thought. Frisk looked fearful at what his father might do. At least Frisk still had the magazine for the gun. Still, Frisk knew that if it came down to a fight, Norman would be able to wipe the floor with everyone here, as none of them would fight back in a meaningful way. They wouldn’t hurt someone as important to Frisk as his dad. Frisk’s mother had a look of complete horror on her face. As for the monsters, they all looked guilty, and in Sans’ case his pinpricks of light were gone. 

“Frisk, answer me!” Norman commanded.

Frisk immediately began defending them, figuring if his dad knew the whole story he could forgive them. “Dad, they only did what they did because they wanted to finally be able to live on the surface! They’ve been trapped-“ Norman cut him off.

“Frisk, there’s no excuse for harming a child. Let’s go.” Frisk didn’t respond at first, looking incredulously at his father. Asgore looked especially hurt by the comment. Norman got up, and walked over to Frisk. “Frisk, let’s go. We have seen all we want to see.” Frisk saw fire in his father’s eyes. Frisks mom, wanting to leave as well, got up and waited by the door. Her countenance was fearful, afraid that these Monsters might attack them for trying to take their son back home.

“No. You haven’t even given them a chance.” Frisk said softly.

“Frisk, it’s not a question. We are leaving, _now_.” Norman commanded.

Frisk, knowing that there would be trouble if Frisk didn’t leave got up and started walking with them. Norman turned around and walked quickly, stopping in the doorway. “Y’all better leave my son alone, or else.” He threatened, fury dripping from his words. When Norman turned around, Frisk mouthed _I’ll be back._ Toriel caught it and nodded. The three of them quickly walked back the way they came, leaving the monsters alone in the sitting room. Toriel put her head in her hands and rubbed her eyes. The others sat there looking at each other uncertainly, not knowing if they would ever be able to see Frisk again. Papyrus, sat there bewildered, knowing that he’d screwed up badly but unable to figure out how it had gone so wrong so quickly.

They all sat in silence.


	3. Bad Vibes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may want to read my short story "Lost Innocence" before reading this chapter. It gives a little background as to what happens here, but isn't strictly necessary to understand the story.

Frisk and his family made the trek home. Frisk spent a lot of the time trying desperately to make his family turn around and listen to what the monsters had to say. No matter what he said though, they refused to acknowledge anything that Frisk said. Frisk eventually gave up, falling silent. His parents weren't in a mood to listen right now. He'd have to try again once they had both calmed down.

Norman was furious. He had his hands balled up into fists, squeezing so hard that his knuckles popped on occasion. His shoulders were very tense, and he was walking quickly. He couldn’t believe that Frisk had not only been harmed by those _things_ , but he’d actively defended their actions the whole way home! If anyone should be angry at them, it should be Frisk. Frisk's behavior towards them was an enigma, one that Norman was determined to get to the bottom of.

Molly was feeling similarly to Norman. Unlike Norman, she was trying to calm down. She’d always found a hot head made bad decisions. Still, she became determined to protect her son in any way possible from Monsters.

Frisk quietly spoke as they walked up the stairs to the porch on the front of the house. “What are you guys gonna do now?” The group stopped on the porch, and talked in low tones.

“We should get the police involved. They did hurt our child after all.” Norman growled.

“Yeah dad, go and tell them about the monsters who attacked your kid on Mt. Ebott. I’m sure they’d go running up there just for you.” Frisk said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Molly, noticing Norman’s overflowing anger spoke. “We should all just go inside and discuss it tomorrow.”

“Just remember you promised me you wouldn’t tell anyone.” Frisk said, before ran off and stormed inside, slamming the front door behind him. Norman and Molly sighed. They had promised they would tell anyone. They were not ones to break their promises, just as they’d raised Frisk not to.

When he’d gotten inside, Frisk immediately ran into his room and slammed the door shut, locking it behind him. He hoped that was enough to tell him that he didn’t want anything to do with his parents at the moment. If he heard the sound of unlocking, he would put a chair under the doorknob, sticking it shut. He needed space from his parents for a while. Frisk laid down on his bed, and cried into a pillow trying to hide his face in the soft fabric. Frisk had expected for it to not be entirely smooth, but Frisk couldn’t think of any way it could have gone worse. Not only did his parents completely reject Monsters, Norman almost shot one of them. Actually, he could, but he pushed those thoughts out of his head. He didn’t want to think about what might have happened had the bullet found its mark.

So Frisk lay on his bed and cried for a while, getting the pillow wet. However, the tears began to dry up, he was filled with determination. He was going to see them again, he would make sure of it. Frisk began to lay out plans.

Molly knocked on Frisk’s bedroom door around an hour after they got home. “Lunch is ready, come get it.”

“Not hungry.” Frisk said.

Molly paused outside the door. “Frisk, you know we still love you, right?”

There was a pause on the other side of the door, the voice begrudging. “Yeah, I know. I love you too.”

Molly returned to the dining room and set down at the table. Norman looked up at her when she arrived. “He coming to lunch?”

“I doubt it. He said we wasn’t hungry.” She took a bite of her food, a burger and chips. Molly wasn’t in the mood to make something more complicated after the events of the day.

“Whatever, he’ll come out if he gets hungry.” Norman said dismissively.

The two ate in silence for a while. Breaking the silence, Molly said, “He seemed really distraught that we reacted the way we did. To the monsters, that is.”

Norman looked at his wife, “I don’t understand it either. I _saw_ that look in his eyes; they definitely hurt him. I’ve never seen him look like that, ever. He pretty much confirmed it when he began defending their actions. Why would he defend them? It doesn’t make any sense.” Norman mused.

“I don’t know Norman. Maybe that’s his coping mechanism for what happened.” She said.

“Or maybe they have some kind of magic which brainwashes people. They did say they attacked Frisk with magic.”

“Oh come on, let’s not grasp at straws.” Molly said, exasperated

“Molly, we just saw monsters. Beings who had been thought to be long since dismissed as myth. I’m not ruling anything out until we know more. We don’t know what they’re capable of.”

They were both silent for a bit. Then, Norman spoke. “Molly, what are we going to do?”

“What can we do Norman? Frisk is right; the police aren’t going to believe us that monsters attacked our kid. Even if the world knew of monsters, I think Frisk would never tell the police the truth. He’s strong-willed enough he would simply say that the monsters didn’t do anything and the police couldn’t do anything, not on just our testimony. We didn’t actually _see_ it happen, after all. There’s nothing we can do for now other than keep Frisk away from them.”

Norman was still. He was trying to think of something, anything, to say that would refute Molly’s points. But, she was right. There was nothing they could do for now. He sighed. “Yeah, I guess we just do everything we can to keep him safe, away from them.”

For the rest of the meal, the two were lost in silence, thinking about how to best protect their child from monsters.

 

* * *

 

Frisk lay in bed, thinking about his parents. Frisk knew that their reaction was, in many ways, entirely legitimate. Frisk had been hurt by them, many times in fact. They were genuinely wanting to protect Frisk from what had been a danger to him, and not knowing their true natures made their protection even more logical. In both parent’s minds, anyone willing to hurt a child cannot have good character. However, Frisk harbored no resentment towards Monsters. They didn’t _want_ to kill him, but they needed his soul. It wasn’t personal, they just needed them to break the barrier holding them underground, and that was the only way they knew to break the barrier.

Frisk was not used to going against his parents, and thinking that he would be forced to should he wish to continue being their friend made him more than a little nervous. He knew that if, or rather when, they find out what happened the hammer would come down hard. They wouldn’t have mercy on him. Yet, he was fine with this. He couldn’t let his new friends down; his parents had taught him as much. So while Frisk loved and respected his parents, he knew that he needed to follow his heart, even if it meant defying his parents’ wishes. He just needed a way to show them what their character was really like.

Frisk stayed in his room most of the day, only coming out for an hour or so. He’d determined that he would go back up to the mountain. To do it though, he would need help. He sat down as his computer, and Dan was online, as usual. Frisk opened up a message to him. Dan was ecstatic that his best friend was alive and well. Frisk sat through his apologies and pleas for forgiveness, granting all of them. It wasn’t Dan’s fault he fell in to the Underground, after all and Frisk was happy Dan didn’t fall in after him. After the apologies were done, Dan began demanding that Frisk tell him what happened to him. Frisk needed to keep the Monsters secret until he could show Dan in person, so he was evasive about what happened, promising that he could show Dan if they could get some time together. Frisk helpfully suggested to Dan that they should do a sleepover, and Frisk would be able to show him then. Dan was quick to agree, as he usually was, and left his computer to ask his mom if he could do that. Frisk was specifically going to avoid telling his mom until tomorrow, so that he wouldn’t have to lie when they inevitably asked if his “sleepover” was a ploy to go back to Mt. Ebott.

Frisk then went to bed, unlocking the door. His parents weren’t going to come in so late, so there was no point in leaving the door stuck shut. Frisk turned out the lights, then climbed into bed and pulled the covers up over him. Frisk understood then that he was absolutely beat, yet he found he couldn’t sleep. His mind refused to let him sleep, even in the warm embrace of his bed, wanting instead to go think about what happened to him in the past week. Frisk’s mind drifted past each of his encounters with the monsters. Asgore, Mettaton, Alphys, Undyne, Papyrus, Sans…Toriel. Frisk didn’t want to think about Toriel, but he couldn’t stop his mind from playing that time over again.

Frisk was nearly in tears over the memory. It seemed like a dream now. Frisk had some comfort that despite his actions, Toriel was still alive. He couldn’t excuse his own actions though. He wondered how he could ever find atonement. Frisk debated talking to his mom about what happened. If anyone could understand, it would be her. Frisk knew though the only one who could really grant him forgiveness was Toriel herself. Maybe one day he might tell her. One day he might find the right words to explain everything to Toriel. To beg for forgiveness.

Frisk’s exhaustion, however, began to win out. His lack of sleep in Toriel’s home, coupled with his adventures in the Underground, finally forced him to sleep. Frisk welcomed the rest, and was soon lightly snoring.

 

* * *

 

Frisk’s eyes slowly opened. The room was dim, but Frisk could tell that something was off about the room. Or rather, that he was not in his own room. Frisk shifted and got out of the bed. He could faintly see a lamp in the far corner of the room, he shuffled over to it and turned it on. What he saw made his heart sink.

He was in Toriel’s house in the Ruins.

Frisk began to panic, wondering if he’d somehow managed to travel back past his last save point. Frisk had never been able to do that before, and he hadn’t felt the same feeling of power since the barrier broke, but as strange as things had been for him in the past day, he wasn’t about to write it off. He looked down and he was wearing the same clothes he had in the ruins. Maybe he did go back somehow.

Frisk looked around the kid’s room. Everything was in its place, from the wardrobe next to the bed to the boxes of toys and children’s shoes. Nothing seemed out of place from what he could tell, except that there was not a slice of pie on the floor. Maybe this was after he’d already picked it up. Frisk looked around for his bag, but was unable to find it. Maybe he’d left it somewhere else in the house.

Frisk walked over to the door, opened it, and poked his head out of the doorway and looked in both directions. The hallway looked exactly as Frisk remembered it looking, identical to Asgore’s home. Toriel’s home, in layout, was identical to that of Asgore’s, and furnished similarly as well. He stepped out into the hallway and walked towards the sitting room, passing through the entryway. As he approached, he saw Toriel sitting in her chair as she always did, reading. As Frisk got closer, something seemed to be off about the way Toriel was sitting. She seemed…stiff. Frisk couldn’t put his finger on it. Then, Frisk saw the giant gash across her chest. Frisk brought his hands to his mouth, horror seeping through his being. Frisk panicked, running away from her body. He heard footsteps behind him, slow and lumbering, as he bolted down the stairs leading out of the Ruins.

Frisk began running down the dark hallway and as he turned the corner he saw her out of the corner of his eye coming down the stairs, her step lurching and uneven. Frisk still ran as hard as he could towards the door, but the door never seemed to get any closer. It stayed right where it was, even though Frisk remembered it wasn’t far to the door. Frisk’s panic continued to mount as his escape grew no closer, he stumbled and fell. Getting up, he looked behind him and saw Toriel standing there. Her eyes were dead and lifeless, and her face was slack. Dust trickled from her body, leaving a trail wherever she walked. Seeing her like this, Frisk couldn’t find the strength to move anymore. A distorted form of Toriel’s voice began speaking, and her face began twitching in unnatural ways.

“Ah! You’re awake. I have even prepared a curriculum for your education. You know, it’s so nice to finally have someone to talk to again. It’s just a shame that they’re a filthy _murderer_.”

Thorny vines began to extend from Toriel’s mouth towards Frisk. Frisk started to run, but one of the vines snagged his ankle causing him to trip and fall. More vines then wrapped themselves around Frisk’s limbs, causing excruciating pain from the vine’s thorns. The vines then pulled Frisk to his feet. Frisk struggled, but his attempts were only met with pain as the thorns dug more into his flesh, and caused Frisk to cry out. Toriel pulled a knife from one of the folds in her robe, its edge shining brightly. This knife was not the plastic affair that Frisk had attacked Toriel with; instead it was a very real knife. The vines began manipulating his arms and hands, causing him to reach out and take the knife that Toriel was now holding out to Frisk, the hilt extended towards Frisk as if she wanted Frisk to take it. Frisk gripped the knife, unable to do anything else because of the vines ensnaring Frisk. The vines then grew around Frisk’s hand, forcing his hand to keep a tight grip on the knife’s hilt.

“You know, I always wanted the best for you, Frisk. To protect you. But no, _I_ needed protecting from _you_ , you sick child. Do you know what it was like to be killed by someone that received nothing but love and affection? Let me show you what that was like.”

“No, Toriel please! I didn’t mean to kill you! I was just scared and hurt and didn’t know what else to do so I lashed out! I didn’t know any better!” Frisk pleaded, to no avail. Frisk began sobbing from the pain in both his body and his soul.

The vines around the knife began to constrict, pulling the knife closer to Frisk’s chest until the sharp point was pressing against his chest, causing a small trickle of blood to darken Frisk’s sweater. Frisk continued to plead to the entity that was in front of him to no avail. The vines began to slowly push the knife into Frisk’s chest, Frisk shouting in pain. The knife continued to be pushed deeper, and deeper until the hilt was pressing against Frisk’s chest. Frisk’s shouts turned to gurgling breaths. Frisk was finding it hard to breathe, the strong taste of copper on his lips, but yet he still clung desperately to his life.

“Yes, that’s what it felt like to feel that toy knife, its edge made deadly sharp by your malice, slicing deep into my soul. Do you think _I’ll ever_ be able to forgive you for that feeling? Have you forgotten Frisk? In this world, it’s _kill or be killed!_ ” The vines twisted the knife in Frisk’s chest, but he was only able to give a faint gurgle in response.

Frisk began to feel his soul starting to give. Frisk no longer felt the determination that promised to bring him back, and hadn’t since the barrier broke. Frisk coughed, blood splattering the ground in front of him. If it weren’t for the vines, Frisk would have collapsed on the ground, but as it was they kept him standing. Frisk could no longer cling to his life, his vision began fading, the monstrosity before him filling his view. Then, he felt his soul crack in two, then break into several pieces, falling to the ground like broken glass.

 

* * *

 

Frisk woke with a start, and immediately began screaming. Frisk, still in shock felt the area on his chest where the knife had been, and discovered that he was not injured. Frisk was shaking uncontrollably, fresh fear and guilt welling to the surface of his consciousness. His mom had heard the scream and came bursting through the door. In the darkness, Frisk could have swore it was Toriel, and he screamed and crawled to the back corner of his bed to get as far away as he could. Molly turned on the lights, which blinded both of them for a second, until Frisk could see his mother, who was looking him over to make sure he was ok.

“Frisk, what’s the matter? Are you ok? Are you hurt?” She asked, deep concern on her face.

Frisk, instead of answering jumped off the bed, grabbed his mom, and began crying uncontrollably into her shoulder. Frisk and his mom remained like that for several minutes, Molly consoling him the whole time that it had all been just a bad dream. After Frisk’s had cried for a while and his tears had finally stopped he pulled away. Molly looked at her son’s expression, seeing that he was greatly troubled by whatever happened in that dream.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Molly asked.

Frisk didn’t want to tell his mom about killing Toriel, so he shook his head.

Molly sighed. Thinking of what she’d done in the past for nightmares, she said, “Well, maybe some warm milk will help you calm down. I’ll be right back.” Molly patted Frisk’s back and left, leaving Frisk alone with his thoughts.

Frisk was starting to calm down after the nightmare, but he was still shaken. Frisk walked over to the window and opened it, letting the cold outside air hit his face. He had hoped that he would be able to simply forget about his mistakes in the Underground. That he could bury the events that had technically never happened, but Frisk knew it would always be real to him. That they did happen. He wanted desperately to make up for his sins, somehow, but he knew of no way.

Frisk’s mom came back holding a mug and stopped in the doorway, seeing Frisk leaning on the open windowsill. Molly cleared her throat and Frisk turned around. He shut the window and sat down on his bed. Molly took the mug she had been holding and handed it to Frisk. Frisk took it gratefully and drank some of the warm milk. It did help calm him down. Molly sat on the bed next to Frisk, rubbing his back while he nursed from the mug. She didn’t speak a word, knowing that her son just needed to know that she was there for him. That she would always listen to him. They sat like that for a while, the mug that held the milk having long since grown cold.

Frisk spent the time wondering if he could ever tell anyone else about everything that happened to him. He could only imagine what some of their reactions might be. He wasn’t even sure if it was worth the pain for them to know. It wasn’t like he had a safety net anymore; he no longer felt the power that allowed him to save. He would have to deal with the consequences of them knowing what happened if he told them. At least there’s no way for them to know that Frisk had loaded saves a couple of times.

Frisk began to yawn, even though sleep was now the last thing he could possibly want. Molly got up from the bed, smoothing her son’s hair. “Frisk, I’m gonna leave you to get some sleep. If you need me, don’t hesitate to come and wake me up. I love you.” She tucked Frisk in to bed. She hadn’t done that in a long time, but Frisk was relieved that she did. As she was walking out the doorway, she paused and looked at Frisk, giving him a warm smile. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She turned off the lights and left the room.

Frisk lay in bed for a while, struggling against his body’s desire to sleep. He was still so tired, but he was afraid of what he might find should he sleep again. However, Frisk couldn’t resist sleep for long, and soon found himself in deep, dreamless sleep.


	4. Introductions

“Good morning, Frisk.” The lights came on in Frisk’s room. Frisk groaned at being woken up by his mom. He now wished he’d talked his parents into letting him stay home from school. He doubted they would be talked into it now. Frisk rolled over, shielding his eyes from the harsh light and not wanting to get up. He lay like that for a few minutes before finally giving up and getting out of bed. Frisk rubbed his eyes, trying to wake up. Frisk began going through the motions of getting ready to go back to school. Getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing his teeth, that sort of thing. He did this the same way every morning, working on sleepy autopilot. When he was ready to go, Frisk grabbed his backpack and waited by the door for his mom, who always took him to school. Molly looked a little more tired than usual, probably from staying up with Frisk. Frisk himself felt like he could use several hours more of sleep. 

The ride to school was uneventful. Molly had long ago given up trying to talk to Frisk in the mornings. He would never respond with more than a grunt, or a “yes” or “no” if she was lucky. Like every young boy, he didn’t like early mornings. Less so today, given what happened the previous night. Molly was concerned that he was reliving the events of his time in the Underground. Maybe she would encourage him to talk to the school counselor. She laughed at the thought. Yeah, the school counselor is probably not a good idea, given the subject matter. She didn’t want to have to answer questions as to why her son thought that Monsters were real.

Molly pulled up to the curb and let Frisk out, wishing him a good day. Frisk, however, was nervous about today. He knew that everyone would be asking questions about where he went, and he couldn’t give any answers. He wasn’t sure if he would simply wave them off that nothing really happened, or if he would even respond at all. Either way, he needed to get to class, so he hoisted his bag up on his shoulders and walked into the school building.

The building that housed Frisk’s school was an older, square brick building. It was relatively plain on the outside, but during spring and summer this was remedied by filling the front flower beds with a colorful array of flowers. It was getting to be about time for the school’s groundskeepers to fill the beds, but they were barren when Frisk walked up to the school building.

Overall, the school day went about as well as Frisk figured it would. As expected everyone mobbed him, asking him what had happened, and he waved them off and told them nothing major happened, that he’d gotten lost in the woods for a bit. Pretty much everyone was disappointed by this answer, and he felt bad even though it was _technically_ true. He would certainly make it up to Dan this afternoon. Frisk had used Dan’s phone to text his mom, begging her to let him do a sleepover with Dan. She (very reluctantly) consented, thankfully. Frisk wouldn’t even need to run by the house; he’d already packed some clothes in his school bag. Frisk was excited, yet nervous about bringing his friend to the monsters. Frisk hoped that it would go better than his parent’s introduction did. Not that their introduction set a high standard.

Frisk met Dan outside the front of the school where they usually met. Dan came out of the front of the building, and ran towards Frisk. Dan was older than Frisk by about a year, but they were still in the same grade. Dan was around Frisk’s age and height with distinctly Asian features. He also carried around a few extra pounds, whereas Frisk was skinny as a rail. He was wearing brown jeans, sneakers, and a plaid button-up shirt.

“Hey man.” Dan said.

“Hey.” Frisk said. The two bumped fists.

“Dude, you had me freaked out back there! Not to mention you left me with all of the gear. Never been so winded in all of my life.” Dan said, waving his arms around expressively. Frisk felt bad at his statement.

“Hey, I’m sorry for that. I didn’t mean for any of that to happen.”

“I know you didn’t.” Dan put his hand on Frisk’s shoulder and wagged his finger at Frisk. “But don’t do it again, ok?” They both laughed, but Frisk heard the serious edge to the statement. Dan’s voice lowered, and he took his hand off of Frisk and put it in his pocket. “So what did happen? I know you were telling everyone that you’d just gotten lost in the forest, but that’s not like you. You’d never wander far enough away from the camp that you would get lost, especially at night.” Dan looked at Frisk, calling out Frisk’s fabrication with a raised eyebrow.

Frisk sighed. “Yeah, that’s not the whole truth. But, I don’t want to tell you what happened. I’d rather just show you.” Frisk grinned.

Dan raised an eyebrow. “Show me? Show me where?”

“Back on Mt. Ebott. It’s about a 40 minute hike. We could easily go up, take a look, and come back down before it got dark. Whaddya say?” Dan expressed some trepidation at going back up the mountain so soon. “C’mon man, we’re not staying on the mountain and I can promise you’ll love what you see.”

Dan snorted. “It’d better be freaking fantastic to go back up that mountain. Fine, I’ll go with you, but it’d better be good.”

Frisk snickered. “Oh trust me, you’ll love it. You won’t believe your eyes.” Frisk knew he wouldn’t.

The two immediately set out towards the entrance to the Underground. Dan gave his mom a call, informing her that they were not going to be home immediately after school. She was fine with that, as usual. So the two walked to the edge of town, then hiked up to the cave, Frisk stopping his friend at the mouth of the cave.

“Dan, listen to me. What you’re about to see has to stay top secret, at least for a while. If you can’t keep a secret, and it’s a really big one, we will have to turn around and head back. Got it?”

“Yeah, of course I can keep a secret. You know that. In fact, I’m a little hurt you question my lips of steel.” Dan put on a look of fake sorrow.

Frisk laughed at his friend. “Yeah, and whatever you do, don’t panic. You’ll be fine.” With that Frisk marched into the cave and Dan followed, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. Before long the two were in Asgore’s throne room. Asgore was in there, watering the large patch of flowers. He was dressed similarly as yesterday, but he was wearing a different flowery shirt. Frisk called out to Asgore and he looked up, surprised to see Frisk standing there. 

“Whoa! Dude, sweet cosplay! Who are you dressed as? How did you get it so real looking?” Dan exclaimed 

Frisk literally facepalmed at Dan’s remark. Only Dan would say something like that.

Asgore looked confused “Cosplay? Frisk, what’s cosplay? And I’m dressed as myself…?”

Frisk sighed. “Cosplay is not important, Asgore.” Frisk turned to Dan. “And he’s not cosplaying. He’s real. Monsters are real man.”

Dan laughed. “Hah, you’re kidding right?” Frisk’s face told him he was dead serious. Dan looked at Asgore, reevaluating the monster standing before him. After determining that Frisk’s statement might, in fact, be true, Dan’s expression reached all new levels of excitement.

Dan looked incredulously at Frisk. “Holy smokes! No freakin’ way!”

Frisk grinned. “Yeah frickin’ way. Dan, I’d like you to meet Asgore, King of Monsters!” Frisk said, and made a grandiose motion towards Asgore.

“Howdy! You’re Frisk’s friend I’d assume?” Asgore said.

Dan was absolutely stoked. Not only was he meeting real, live Monsters, but he was meeting the _King_ of Monsters. Frisk hadn’t seen him this excited since _Space Wars_ got a sequel.

Dan was beside himself, unable to speak. Frisk took the opportunity to answer for Dan. “Yes. Best friends, actually.” Frisk put his arm around the star struck Dan.

“Hoho! I’ve never seen anyone so excited to meet me before! It’s delightful.” Asgore motioned towards where Frisk knew his house was. “Let’s go back to my house, and I’ll make you both some hot cocoa.”

The three of them walked to Asgore’s house. Frisk and Dan had a seat at the table and Asgore went into the kitchen, soon coming out with three steaming cups on a tray. After distributing the cups and having a seat himself, Asgore spoke. “Frisk, I’m so happy to see you again. I wasn’t sure we’d ever see you again given how you’re parents reacted.” Asgore lowered his voice. “Do your parents know you’re here?”

Fisk took a sip of the cocoa and sighed. “No, Asgore. They don’t know I’m here. It needs to stay that way for now until I can come up with a way to turn their opinion towards you guys.”

“Oh. Are you sure this is a good idea? I don’t want you to get into any more trouble than we’ve already put you in.” Asgore looked demoralized.

“Nonsense, Asgore.” Frisk waved him off. “They feel like they’re protecting me, but they’re just overreacting.”

Dan looked troubled. “Uh, Frisk? Why would they be afraid of these guys?”

Frisk was evasive. “Like I said, they’re simply overreacting. You’ll figure that out pretty quick. Speaking of which, where are the others?”

“Well, Alphys and Undyne are in Alphys’ lab, trying to come up with a way to communicate with the humans. Sans, Papyrus, and Toriel are all working with the Royal Guard to make sure that everyone stays underground until we’re ready to have people start moving to the surface. It would be tragic to have someone killed on accident, and everyone’s antsy to see the surface.”

Asgore’s suddenly had a realization. “Oh. I probably should call the others and tell them you’re here. They would probably all want to see you again, and meet…” Asgore paused. “I don’t believe I ever caught your name?” Asgore said to Dan.

“Uh, no. I don’t think I introduced myself yet. I’m Dan.”

“Ah, Dan. It’s nice to meet you. Excuse me for a minute while I call the others.”

Asgore then pulled out his phone and walked into the entryway, leaving the two boys in the room alone. Dan was still beside himself, and was talking to himself under his breath. Frisk let him sit and process for a little bit. It didn’t take Asgore long to finish making his calls. “The others are on their way here. None of them are very far, though it sounds like Papyrus and Sans may not be able to make it here. They were having trouble with someone, though they didn’t tell me who.” Asgore sat down at the table again.

“So your parents are still angry at us then?” Asgore said. He took a drink from the cocoa, a couple marshmallows ending up in his beard.

“Yeah, they’re definitely still angry. Hopefully in time they can learn about how nice you guys actually are.” Frisk took a sip of his cocoa, the warmth feeling good after their walk to the Underground.

“Frisk, I would be ok if you didn’t want to continue being our ambassador. You’ve done a lot for us already, and we’re grateful for it. You’re not obligated to help us.”

“I know that. I’m doing it because you and the others are my friends. I always offer any help my friends in need.” Frisk gave a genuine smile to Asgore.

Then the sound of the front door opening was heard, ending the conversation. Alphys and Undyne came in.

“H-hey Frisk. Glad t-to s-s-see you again. I was worried…y-you might not come b-back.” Alphys said, greeting Frisk.

“Yeah, sorry about what happened with your parents. I tried to get Pap to stop, but it’s hard to make him shut up once he starts talking. You know how he is.” Undyne said, looking crestfallen.

“Guys, don’t worry about it. I’ll get them to warm up to y’all, but it’ll take some time.” Frisk then introduced them both to Dan who enthusiastically greeted the two.

After they were all seated again at the table, Frisk spoke. “So what’s the plan so far? For making your announcement? Asgore said you were working on something Alphys.”

“W-well, _technically_ I have been; B-b-but it’s hard to m-make any progress without a-anything to work w-w-with.” Alphys said. “I don’t even kn-know what kind of t-technology humans even _use_ , let alone how to harness it.” Alphys looked more than a little ashamed.

“Hey Alphys, don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ll come up with something! You always do!” Undyne said, giving her girlfriend a big toothy smile.

Frisk thought for a moment. “Alphys, maybe you wouldn’t need to do anything. I could always get the message out.”

“How?” Asgore said.

“Through the internet. It’s similar to UnderNet, but _waaaaay_ bigger. Any message put there could be quickly seen by a ton of people, around the world. It’s not every day real, live, monsters post on there.”

Dan picked up on Frisk’s thought, and began talking with his hands energetically. “Yeah. Yeah that could work. Make a video from the Monsters and everyone will see it. Surely someone important will see it and want to talk to you.”

The group then discussed Frisk’s plan. Toriel came a little later and was introduced to Dan, and the group informed her of their discussion so far. When the four monsters were in a heated discussion over simply marching into town, which Undyne had unsurprisingly lobbied for, Dan leaned over and whispered to Frisk. “Hey, I’ve been thinking about something. Do you remember that video? The one that depicted that thing carrying the dead human? Is it just me, or does Toriel and Asgore look like it?”

Frisk knew the video that Dan was talking about. It was about twenty years ago or so when it was released, and Frisk could see the resemblance for sure. With a sickening feeling, it dawned on Frisk. That was Asriel in that video. Frisk remembered hearing the story on his way to meet Asgore the first time. It fit perfectly with what he’d heard.

“Dan, you’re right. I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection until now. That was _Asriel_ , Toriel and Asgore’s son in that video.”

Dan’s eyes grew wide. “That means…their son was _shot_?” He looked horrified at the thought.

By this time the others had caught on to Frisk and Dan participating in their own conversation. “What about Toriel and Asgore?” Undyne said.

The two children looked at each other, trying to decide who should explain. Frisk sighed, knowing it was up to him to explain. He was the one who knew the original story and had the most connection with the monsters. “Well, Dan and I just realized that you guys are not the first time the world has seen monsters in recent history.” Frisk didn’t want to continue at all, but he felt they deserved to at least know. Frisk’s statement caused confusion in the group of Monsters. “Well, there was a video that went viral on the internet around twenty years ago. When it came out originally, it had everyone stumped. Heh, it even spawned entirely new and crazy conspiracy theories.” Frisk laughed dryly. Toriel and Asgore’s expression darkened, their thoughts on what happened twenty years ago. Alphys and Undyne looked to the two with sympathy. “I only know of it because of these conspiracy theories. Dan and I would look some up just for giggles. But, now I’ve realized there’s a much, much more likely possibility.” Frisk took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he would say next. “All of that to say that I think that humanity knows of Asriel. Through that video.”

Toriel stiffened at the mention of her son’s name. Asgore’s shoulders hunched, as if a few hundred pounds had been put on his shoulders. They were both instantly reliving that day. The grief, the pain. It was unbearable for the two of them. It’s part of what pushed them to separate. It was always hard to have that constant reminder of what they’d lost, beyond what happened to the kingdom. The thought that there was video of their son, probably being attacked, was a huge burden on their souls.

Frisk felt horrible seeing their grief. Humanity had truly taken away everything from the monsters. Frisk had a thought though. What if they used that video in whatever introduction was created for the monsters? It would solve a huge enigma, and would drum up sympathy. Frisk spoke up. “I know what I’m about to ask is going to be hard, but what if we used Asriel’s story in the introduction? It’s only right that everyone knows what was done to your son, after all.”

Frisk waited with bated breath. Frisk wasn’t sure how readily they’d want to expose themselves to that grief again, even if it meant that they might be able to get new closure in having Asriel’s story turn into something good for the kingdom. Frisk also wondered if both of them would be able to forgive humanity for what they did. Frisk knew that if something had happened to his parents, he would probably be unable to forgive whoever did it.

“It’s ok if you guys don’t want to talk about it. I know the story; I can give the background. Everyone would learn of what happened, but you wouldn’t have to bare your grief for the whole world.” Frisk said.

Asgore’s voice was quiet. “Yes, Frisk. The world needs to know what happened. I will tell it. It’s time the world knows what happened on that fateful day.” Frisk motioned for Dan to take out his phone and record Asgore. Dan complied.

“Years ago, we had a son named Asriel. He was our first child. We loved him dearly and he filled the kingdom with hope. When the first human fell into the Underground, Asriel was the first to find him. The human was injured, so he brought him back to my wife and I. We nursed the child back to full health. The barrier that kept us in here also kept the fallen child in as well. It allowed for easy entry, but it was much more difficult to get out. As the human couldn’t get through the barrier, Toriel and I were willing to adopt the human. The child was willing to become a member of our family. It brought even more hope for the kingdom that we might one day be able to reestablish good relationships with the humans. We became a happy family, both of us growing to love the child as one of our own.” Asgore paused, gathering his thoughts. Everyone was silent out of respect for their King.

Asgore continued. “One day, the human fell deathly ill. As they lay there dying, their final wish was to see the flowers in their town one last time before they died. Unfortunately, we had no way of getting them out of the barrier. Then, they died. We were all grief-stricken, but none of us were hit harder than Asriel. The two had grown very close, becoming the equivalent of close siblings. In a moment of grief, Asriel absorbed the soul of the human, granting him great power, and the ability to pass through the barrier.” Asgore stopped, trying to hold back tears. Toriel was also rubbing her eyes, the memory bring fresh grief to the Queen.

He took a deep breath and continued. “Asriel picked up the human’s body and took him back to the human’s town. When he got there, the townsfolk saw him with the human’s lifeless body and assumed that he had killed the child.” Asgore took a shaky breath. “They…attacked him. He had more than enough power to destroy all of them, and yet he never attacked. That didn’t stop them from hurting my son.” Asgore had a fury on his face that Frisk had never seen from Asgore. 

“He ran back to the mountain, taking blow after blow from the humans, carrying his adopted brother back to the Underground. He made it back here, but his wounds were too grievous. There was nothing that could be done to help him.” Both of them were now crying, unable to hold back their grief anymore. “He got back to us, and he lived only long enough to tell us what had happened. Then he turned to dust in our arms. We had lost not one, but both of our children in one day. The kingdom was plunged into despair.” Asgore could no longer hold himself together, and broke down in sobs. Toriel was not faring much better. Undyne and Alphys averted their eyes from the two, both unsure about how to deal with the crying duo. Frisk got up and walked over to Toriel, giving her a hug, which she gladly returned. They sat and cried for a while, until the tears eventually stopped. Frisk let go of Toriel, and went over to Asgore and gave him a hug as well. It wasn’t much, but Asgore was comforted by the gesture.

After everyone had gained their composure again, they finalized Frisk’s plan. No one wanted to risk having a human panic and attack to have a monster go into town themselves. They wouldn’t be able to do more than take a few blows at the most before being turned to dust like Asriel was. So they set to recording Toriel’s speech to humanity, and taking pictures of the monsters who were there. They needed to have a lot of media to dispel doubts that it was all faked. Frisk also took the opportunity to see if Alphys could come up with a way to be able to communicate. That was, fortunately, one thing she had been able to do. With some modifications to his phone, Frisk would be able to call them back at the mountain from his home. 

After they’d finished all of that, Frisk and Dan needed to leave if they were going to be out of the woods before dark. Frisk wanted to stay there, and he knew they would let him stay, but he didn’t want Dan’s mom to think something had happened to the two of them so soon after Frisk’s disappearance. Frisk and Dan said their goodbyes, and they went on their way. The trip back to Fairview was uneventful. Dan spent most of the way walking back talking about how cool it was that Frisk had found actual monsters. Frisk also spent the time telling Dan about his adventures in the Underground, leaving out the same parts he left out telling the tale to his parents. They got back to Dan’s house just as his family was cleaning up after dinner. The two warmed up the leftovers that Dan’s mom made for them, and chittered about the things Frisk had missed when he disappeared.

When they’d finished, they ran up to Dan’s room. Dan’s room was on the second floor of the house, and was decorated with various sci-fi movie decorations. Like many young boys, the room was messy, but not disgusting. The two set down at Dan’s computer, and began creating the video that would introduce humanity to monsters. They spent a couple of hours working on it until it was finished. When they finished, and the final product had been rendered, they opened the video and started it.

The video began with a black screen. White text in the middle of the screen said "What you're about to see is real and true." After several seconds, it cut to Toriel. "Hello. My name is Toriel, Queen of the Monster Kingdom. We have existed for millennia, trapped underground by humanity for the past thousand years. We are now free, thanks to the actions of a brave human boy named Frisk who shattered the barrier locking us underground. Now, we would like to start peaceful relationships with humanity again. We did live in peace at one time; we would like to return to those days. We don't want to fight; we just want to live alongside humanity. If you're with the American government, we would like to open diplomatic relationships between monsters and humanity. We have set up an email address which officials can use to contact us. We request that only government officials contact us using this email." An email address appeared on the bottom of the screen. Frisk had created this email solely for this purpose.

"There is one other matter that we need to clear up. I have been informed of a video that was recorded around twenty years ago." Toriel's posture stiffened slightly, almost imperceptibly. "In it, humanity sees a monster for the first time in thousands of years. Here's an image from the video." A still frame from a video appeared on screen. It depicted a tall monster with features similar to Toriel, carrying a child’s dead body. "I would like the world to understand what happened that fateful day. My ex-husband, King Asgore Dreemurr, will explain." The video cut to Asgore's tear-filled account of Asriel's death. Once, finished, the video cut back once more to Toriel.

Toriel's expression was resolute. "We do not want any incidents like this to happen again. It's the reason that we have yet to leave the Underground, even if there's nothing stopping us. We are afraid not of deliberate human retaliation, but accidental retaliation out of misunderstanding. All we want is the respect that we deserve as people. That is all, thank you for listening." The video ended.

Frisk and Dan looked at each other once the video finished. "What do you think?" Dan said.

Frisk leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "I think it looks good. Let’s hope that this is the beginning of a good relationship between humankind and monsterkind. Upload it."

Dan began the upload, uploading both the video and the various pictures. Once they'd finished, Dan began posting links to the video everywhere he could think of. Once that was done, Dan leaned back in his chair. "It's done. Now we wait and see."

The two sat and watched the video's view counter intently for several minutes. It did not change quickly, which they had expected, given that the video had only been up a few minutes. They got bored of watching it pretty quickly, and instead began playing games like they normally would on a sleepover. They were up late into the night, both eventually growing tired, and went to bed. Frisk was in a sleeping bag on the floor, while Dan was in his bed. Frisk still struggled to get to sleep, thinking too much about the future. About what the future might hold for monsterkind and humankind. Frisk hoped that humanity would be able to accept the monsters with open arms, but he knew it probably would take a long time for that to happen. Before long, Frisk fell into the first restful sleep he'd had in a week.


	5. Disquiet

 

Frisk awoke slowly, silently thanking God for the peaceful night's sleep. He propped himself up and looked at the clock. It was around 9 o'clock. Frisk was surprised he'd woken up so early. He looked over at the bed and saw Dan's form still in bed, blankets curled around him in a tight cocoon. Frisk always thought it was funny the way he curled up in the blankets like that. Frisk got up quietly and left Dan's room, trying to not wake his friend up. He padded down the stairs in his bare feet. To his left in the living room, he could see Dan's mom on the couch. She was short, and skinny as a rail. Her hair was very dark and was kept short. Her eyes were almond shaped and kindly. She had the news on and was watching it, but turned to look at Frisk once he walked into the living room. The living room was painted a pale yellow, and there was a white sectional in the far corner of the room, across from the TV. Artwork adorned the walls and the floor was a nice hardwood.

"Good morning, Frisk. Did you sleep well?" She said.

"Yeah, I slept like a rock." Frisk rubbed his eyes, trying to get the last of the sleep out of his eyes.

"Would you like something for breakfast? I've got the stuff for pancakes, if you want some."

"Yeah, I'd like that if it wouldn't be too much trouble for you."

"Nah, it's not hard to make some pancakes. I'll get started on them if you want to go get lazybones up." Frisk knew she was referring to Dan.

"Yeah, I'll do that. Thank you very much." He turned and went back upstairs and into Dan's room. Dan was still right where Frisk had left him. Frisk thought about how to best wake his friend up. The curtains were pulled over the windows, so Frisk pulled them aside, filling the room with bright morning sunshine. Dan groaned in bed, rolling over so his back was to the window.

"Rise and shine! Your mom's making pancakes, and if you don't get down there soon I'll have to eat yours!" Dan groaned and started to work himself out of his bed.

"Ugh...that almost makes up for getting woken up before noon on a weekend." Dan blinked, trying to get his eyes used to the sudden brightness in the room. He then stretched, and went limp again, all on top of his bed. "I'll be down in a minute, just need a moment to wake up."

"Fine, just remember that if you're not down there soon I get your pancakes too." Frisk stuck out his tongue at Dan, who was still too sleepy to return the gesture.

Frisk thought to check the video to see what had happened to it overnight. He logged onto Dan's computer and pulled the video up, and was immediately shocked by the view count on it. It had gotten nearly a million views while they were asleep. This was fantastic! This meant that they were getting the exposure that they needed. If it had done that overnight, who knows how many would see it now that it was daytime? Frisk got excited, and hollered at Dan. "Dude, check out how many views our video got!"

Dan perked up a little bit. "How many?"

"We're approaching a million views, Dan! This is crazy!"

Dan was certainly awake after hearing that. "Are you serious? No way!" He jumped out of bed and ran to the computer, where Frisk showed him the video.

"Holy smokes. That's fantastic! Do we have any emails?" Dan asked excitedly. Frisk had been too caught up in the view count to think to check the email.

"I don't know. Let me check." He logged into the email account, and discovered that there were thousands of emails from many people. After filtering out personal emails, none of them were from government email addresses, though there were a few from news sources. Frisk thought he should probably ask Asgore or Toriel if they wanted to talk to the media at all yet. He'd do it later.

"Hm, nothing from the government yet." Frisk said, a little bit of disappointment in his voice.

"Eh, I'm sure they'll contact us soon. In the meantime, let’s head downstairs and get some pancakes." Frisk logged out of the email and locked the computer before following Dan back downstairs to the kitchen, which was painted the same color as the living room and decorated simply, where Dan's mom almost had some pancakes done. The two sat down at the table, and before long were eating some pancakes. Dan's mom had cleaned up the dishes from the pancakes and had gone back into the living room. Dan and Frisk were mostly silent, devoting themselves to the pancakes until they were eaten. Once they'd both finished, Frisk decided that he needed to head home. He knew his parents would want him home before too much longer. So he got his stuff packed up, said his goodbyes to Dan, and walked home. It wasn't a long walk, and Frisk was back at his house before long. He walked up the stairs, opened the front door, and went inside. Frisk sat his bag down by the door as he walked in.

Frisk found his parents sitting in the living room, watching TV. "Hey guys, I'm home."

They both turned to look at Frisk. "Hey, Frisk. How was your sleepover with Dan?"

"It was as good as it always was. He was relieved to see me alive and well."

"Good, good. I'm glad to hear that." Molly smiled at Frisk. "Y'know, your dad and I were talking about running over to Mayfield to do some shopping, and probably get you a new phone as well. Do you want to come?"

Frisk was excited about the prospect of getting a new phone, so of course he agreed. He and his family drove to Mayfield, a larger town 30 or so minutes from Fairview. They spent the day doing shopping, buying Frisk some new clothes and getting him a new phone to replace his old one. The phone Frisk got wasn't top of the line, but it was certainly better than his old one. Frisk wouldn't miss it, and was happy that it getting broken resulted in getting a better one. If he'd broken it pretty much any other way he would've been stuck with a low-end phone until he could buy a better one himself.

The day went well for everyone. Molly and Norman were both happy to be able to do things with their son again. Everyone was happy, though Frisk was careful to avoid talking about monsters, or even about his sleepover the night before. It wasn't unusual for Frisk to be vague about what he and Dan did on sleepovers; but his parents were more cautious than ever, and Frisk found it difficult to evade their questions. He would need to come up with good excuses for the future.

They got home late in the evening. After Frisk had helped unload the car, he went into his room and closed the door, locking it. He sat down at his computer and checked the email again, noticing that he'd received many more emails. After sorting through them, he discovered there were a few originating from government email accounts. Getting excited, Frisk opened one of them. It detailed some contact information for some high-ranking government officials. Frisk took the opportunity and called, even if it was Saturday. It didn't take long for him to be connected to the diplomat, whom he made arrangements with to have them meet Asgore on Monday, getting the time set so Frisk would have a chance to be there.

Frisk then picked up the phone and called Asgore, wanting to fill him on the plans. After a couple of rings, Asgore picked up.

"Hello?" A baritone voice said.

"Hey, Asgore. It's Frisk."

"Howdy, Frisk! I hope you're doing well."

"Yeah, Asgore, I'm doing well. Listen, I got you a meeting with an important government official on Monday. Is that ok with you? If it's not I'm sure that we can reschedule, but that's the earliest they can meet with you."

"Yes, that would be fine. The sooner we can get the human government involved, the sooner we can start rebuilding on the surface." Frisk filled him in on the details of the meeting. After he'd finished there was a moment of silence on both ends.

"Hey Asgore, how's everything doing on your end? I would guess that you're probably having problems keeping everyone underground."

Asgore's voice betrayed exasperation. "Yeah. People really want to leave. We need to get negotiations done sooner rather than later. At least now I have something that I can tell everyone about that at least is showing progress is being made. I have to say though, Frisk, I'm more than a little nervous about meeting with humans, other than you, of course. I hope that I can convince Toriel to be there with me. She always did have wisdom beyond what I could muster."

"Asgore, of course she'll be there for it. She is still technically the queen. Why wouldn't she want to be there for first contact with the human government?"

"Yes, Frisk. You're right. I shouldn't worry too much about it. She may still...dislike me...but I’m sure she'll put that aside for all of monsterkind. In fact, maybe I should call her now, tell her what's going on."

"Yeah Asgore. I'll let you go so that you can do that."

"Let me go? You're not holding onto me at all..." The puzzlement was evident through the phone.

Frisk laughed. "No silly. It's a figure of speech. I'm holding on to you by tying your cell phone up."

Asgore let out a hearty laugh. "Ohohohoho! I see! Well then Frisk, I'll let _you_ go then!"

"Ok Asgore. I'll talk to you later." Frisk hung up.

 

* * *

 

Asgore heard the line disconnect on the other end. He began to work up the courage to call his ex-wife. He was always afraid to call her, as every time he called or tried to talk to her she would usually respond with words as sharp as a knife. It hurt him deeply to have her treat him that way, when in another time they used to love each other. Asgore still did. He woke up each morning to a cold and empty bed and tolerated her sharp words in hope that one day she might come back to him at least as a friend. He couldn't ask her to become his wife again after what he did, his sins clinging to him like the seeds from the flowers in his garden.

Either way, he needed to call her. He considered texting her, but considering the subject matter it was probably best served in a phone call. He dialed her number, and paused for a moment before completing the call. He brought the phone up to his ear, and it rang several times. Asgore was about to hang up and try again later when he heard the line connect.

"Asgore, what is it?" An irritated voice asked.

"Toriel, I know I don't have any right to ask, but I...I need your help. Frisk has secured us a meeting with human diplomats, and I really want you to be there too.” Asgore took a breath, trying to calm his racing heart and keep the desperation from leaking into his voice. “I...I don't trust my ability to be a good leader much these days."

There was silence on the other end of the call for a few moments. Toriel, even through her sea of anger, she detected the hints of desperation in his voice. She relaxed her harsh tone. "I see..." She sighed. "Yes. I will be there for sure. It is important to me too that we make a good first impression on the humans, if we want to have any peace.” The harshness seeped back into her voice. “I can't trust you to do that by yourself."

Asgore breathed a sigh of relief, even as her words cut into him. "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me."

The hardness in Toriel's voice softened a little bit. "Yes. When is it?" Asgore filled her in on the details.

"Ok. I'll be there an hour early. Goodbye, Asgore." Toriel hung up on Asgore without a further word.

Asgore set the cellphone down on the table. Her tone was slightly less spiteful as it had been in the past. He allowed himself a little, just a little, bit of hope to bloom in his soul that she just might be able to find some forgiveness in her soul for him. He would never ask that she entirely forgive him; he didn't even forgive himself. Asgore set down in a chair pulled from the table and thought about what was to come.


	6. Diplomacy

Monday afternoon came around, and Frisk was nervous, his insides writhing like a snake. He'd already gotten all of his plans set up for the evening. He'd texted his mom that he wasn't going to be home until late this evening, citing a club outing. They were usually ok with Frisk not being home immediately after school, and today was no exception. He hurried away from the school building, wanting to get to the mountain as soon as possible. He wanted to be there to help smooth out first contact between the two races.

Frisk made good time, and was at the entrance in half an hour. He figured he would be pretty early, but Frisk wasn't sure how much time he had before the official arrived. He was relieved to find that nobody had shown up early. They shouldn't arrive for at least another hour, but Frisk couldn’t be sure if they would show up early. Frisk walked into Asgore's home, and looked around for the large monster. Frisk eventually found him in his bedroom, apparently making his journal entry. Frisk knocked on the doorframe and Asgore turned to see who was at the door.

"Howdy, Frisk! How are you today?" Asgore said cheerily. His hand had a pen in it

"Doing alright, if a little nervous. Well, more than a little. How are you feeling about today?"

"Well, I'm feeling nervous too if I'm honest. I'm hoping Toriel won't be much longer, she was always better at this sort of thing than I was."

"You'll both do fine. Hey, I'm gonna go change in the kid's room real quick. I wanna look good for our first contact, after all. Do you mind?"

"Oh no, of course not! I'll just finish up my journal entry, and I'll see you in the living room."

Frisk smiled at Asgore and left, going into the kid's room before shutting the door. The door didn't have a lock on it, so he'd have to hope no one came in on him. He pulled nice clothes out of his backpack. He was careful all day to keep them nice in his bag, and he'd done a good job. He changed into the clothes, a nice blue button up shirt with black slacks and black dress shoes. Frisk didn't bring a tie as he didn’t know how to tie one, and his dad didn't do clip-on ties. He inspected his look in the mirror, and was satisfied at his appearance, confidence blooming in his chest. He made finger guns at the mirror, then left the room.

He made his way back to the living room, and found that Toriel had evidently arrived while he was getting changed. She was sitting quietly in her overstuffed chair, pointedly ignoring Asgore, who had pulled a chair from the table and was sitting. Toriel was fidgeting with her robe, a practice Frisk had not seen her do. Seeing Frisk approach, Toriel looked up at him and smiled warmly, clasping her hands in her lap.

"Hello, my child. My, you look handsome in dressed up so." Toriel said.

"Why thank you Toriel. I figured if I was going to be your ambassador, I should at least look the part." Frisk winked.

"Although, come here for a second." She beckoned Frisk to get closer to her. When Frisk was in arm's reach, Toriel licked her thumb and smoothed a rouge piece of hair on Frisk's head down, against Frisk's protests. After she'd finished, Frisk gave her a very dissatisfied look.

Toriel laughed, reminded of how her kids used to behave when she did the same thing. Frisk sulked away and leaned on the doorframe, trying to keep Toriel from finding any other things to try and fix.

"So, either of you have any idea what we want the human government to agree to?" Frisk asked.

"Well, we'll need help getting new housing built on the surface. That would also include getting some land, probably close to here. Moving all of monsterkind to a distant place would be a challenge, to say the least." Toriel said.

"Our currency isn't going to be any good either. We'll need either some sort of exchange program set up to change our monster currency into human currency, or just simply receive some human currency to help get us started." Asgore said.

"Well, what is monster money made of? Humans find many metals to be valuable." Frisk helpfully offered.

"Some of the higher value coins are made of silver or gold. Most of the coins used commonly are made of various other metals. Well, pretty much any metal that we could find. We don't have a ready deposit of specific kinds of metal available to us." Asgore explained.

"I see. The silver and gold coins could be worth a considerable amount on the surface, but the others won't have much of a metal value. Though, I would imagine there would be some who would like to buy old monster currency as a collectible, if for nothing else." Frisk said.

"An interesting thought, Frisk. It could be helpful one day.” Asgore paused, as if he just remembered something. “Hey Frisk, shouldn’t you supposed to be watching for the diplomat's arrival?" Asgore inquired.

Frisk realized that, indeed, he was supposed to be waiting outside the cave for them. Frisk said a hasty goodbye before quickly walking back to the mouth of the cave. Frisk supposed that they hadn't arrived yet, so he sat down on the edge of the cliff and waited for them. The cool March air was a little chilly, but Frisk didn't mind cold that much. He sat for a while, unease growing the longer he sat there by himself. He played with the buttons on his shirt uneasily until the faint sounds of a helicopter were heard in the distance. Frisk could see it, just a faint dot in the distance, growing larger and louder as it approached. It was a black helicopter, similar looking to the military helicopters Frisk always saw in the movies, but not so menacing. Before long, it was near Frisk, its loud engine deafening Frisk and blowing dust into the air as they landed it in a small clearing near the mouth of the cave. As the rotors wound down, Frisk saw the diplomats get out of the helicopter, flanked on all sides by several men in army fatigues carrying rifles. Frisk waved wildly, trying to get their attention, and before long he was standing face to face with the one of the diplomats, who seemed to identify himself as the head of the group. He was a short, stocky man with greying hair. He was dressed in a nice suit and was clean shaven.

"Hello. My name is Randy Kendall. I am looking for Frisk. I was told this was where we were to meet, but I don't see him anywhere."

Frisk smirked. "You're looking at him Mr. Kendall."

Randy wasn't sure he'd heard the kid right. "Wait, you're Frisk?” He pointed to Frisk “The Ambassador for the monsters?” Randy’s tone became slightly patronizing. “Aren't you a little young to be filling a role like that?" Randy crossed his arms.

"Maybe, but I am the most knowledgeable about monsters of any human in the world currently. They also figured having a human ambassador might help ease tensions between monsters and humans, and I'm the only human they trust right now."

"Ah." Randy said absentmindedly. He figured this meeting would be odd, but this was gonna take the cake. He wanted to get to wherever the adults were as soon as possible. The idea of negotiating with a state whose formal ambassador was a kid was demeaning to Randy.

"There's just one matter to discuss before we head in. Can you please leave most of your soldiers out here? I can promise you no harm will come to you, and I would hate for one of your men to spook and accidentally shoot someone. Plus, this is the only way in and out of the Underground, so your men will know where you went."

The patronizing tone did not leave Randy’s voice. "Kid, these are trained soldiers. I’m not concerned about an unprovoked action on their part." He paused for a moment. “But I’ll tell ya what, I’ll only take a few of them in with me, ok?”

Frisk mulled that over for a second. It would have to do. Wasn’t like he had a lot of bargaining power here. "Fine, but they'd better not shoot anyone. They'll stay right outside the room we'll be in for the negotiations. Follow me." With that, Frisk turned on his heels and walked into the mouth of the cave, leading Randy and the others back to Asgore's house.

The negotiations overall went pretty well. It had a bit of a rough start, and a few close calls, but thankfully there weren't any incidents. Toriel, and even Asgore, proved to be adept at diplomacy. The trio were able to secure some land on Mt. Ebott for rebuilding, along with some money to help with getting supplies to rebuild. As a compromise for the assistance, Toriel and Asgore were requested to step down as King and Queen. They initially resisted, but caved pretty quickly. Neither one really wanted to rule anymore, though they would still remain as leaders. Just not of their own country.

When they'd finished, Randy packed up all of the papers detailing the deal into his briefcase. He would leave, and if his superiors confirmed the deal he would be back to have everyone sign the final papers. He said his goodbyes and left, his guards in tow. After he was out of sight, Frisk went limp in his chair, expressing his exasperation.

"Phew. Man that took a long time, and we're still not done yet." Frisk said with a sigh.

"Indeed. Monsterkind has a long way to go yet, but things are starting to look up, all thanks to you, Frisk. If it wasn't for you, I'm not sure what we would have done." Asgore said.

Frisk blushed a little bit at Asgore's complement. "Aw, you guys did all the work negotiating. You two actually make a pretty good team." Frisk winked at the two. Toriel blushed, a light pink shade on her cheeks. She stared condescendingly at Asgore, as if to remind him that she was still angry at him, though her blush undermined the effect somewhat. Asgore was pleased with Frisk's comment, until he saw his ex-wife's expression, which blasted away most of the happiness he found in the complement.

Asgore sighed. He needed something to relax himself, as the intense negotiations had left him like a coiled spring. He suspected Toriel wasn’t faring much better. "I could really use a cup of tea. Would anyone else like one?" Frisk nodded his assent and Toriel gave a curt affirmation. Asgore got up and went into the kitchen, leaving Toriel and Frisk alone. Toriel relaxed her posture and sighed. Frisk leaned forward on the table and put his head in his hands. He looked at Toriel. She looked tired, probably about like Frisk felt. He had his nightmare again last night, and struggled to get any sleep after that. This time though he kept from waking the whole house up, opting to not let his parents know about another nightmare. Needless to say, he was running on fumes, and she looked like she might be too. Frisk spoke up.

"Toriel, are you ok? I mean _really_ ok?"

"Yes, of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" She said inattentively. Her mind was drifting away from Asgore’s dining room, into absentminded musings.

Frisk gave her the look his mom used on him when she was trying to get him to open up, a sort of steely-eyed glare with his right eyebrow raised. Frisk found it hard to not talk when she used it on him, and he'd seen it used enough that he figured he could probably use it with some effectiveness too. With Frisk's silence, she looked at him and giggled at the face he was making.

"Frisk, what is that face supposed to be?" She smiled at his expression.

"Well, it's the face my mom makes when she knows I'm not telling the whole truth."

"Ah." She paused and looked down at the table, avoiding Frisk’s gaze. It didn’t escape her that this was exactly what her kids used to do when she did what Frisk was doing now.

"You know you can tell me anything, right Toriel?"

"Yes, I do Frisk. However, I do not wish to burden you with our problems any more than is necessary. You are a child, after all, as much as you seem to forget that sometimes." She gave Frisk a weary look. Frisk still stared at Toriel expectantly. She sighed and rubbed her eyes.

“Frisk, I am still worried about the future. We have yet to really interact with many humans outside of you. With the way your parents reacted to us, that doesn’t give me much hope of a bright future. Humanity doesn’t have a good history with Monsters, after all.”

Frisk looked at Toriel with care in his eyes. “Toriel, my parents only reacted the way they did because they thought y’all had caused me harm. Truth be told, I don’t really care. Everyone gets hurt from time to time, and we all have to live with the scars. It’s just hard for my parents to deal with the idea that they weren’t able to protect their child. Don’t blame yourself; they just need time to work through it.”

Toriel wasn’t sure that had her kids been harmed she would have been able to find it in herself to forgive. She more or less felt that way about Asgore killing the children. Her voice had sullenness in it. “Hm. Your parents must stronger than I am then, if you think that they could forgive us after what we did to you.”

A flame was kindled in Frisk’s eyes at her words. His posture shifted, taking on a more authoritative pose. “Toriel, don’t blame yourself for what happened. You did everything that you could to protect me. I was the one who left, even knowing the dangers that lay ahead of me. I do not hold any grudges towards you or any other Monster. Especially you Toriel.” A shadow passed in front of those flaming eyes, and Toriel almost missed it, passing only for the briefest of moments.

Toriel was quiet. She saw that Frisk had far more strength than he should have for his age. It gave her hope for what the future might hold for all people. She only broke the silence after several seconds had passed. “Thank you Frisk.”

They fell into silence after Toriel’s statement. Asgore turned from the doorway and grabbed the tray. Neither one noticed he was listening, so he’d keep what he heard to himself. He grabbed the tray with the kettle and cups and brought it to the table, serving everyone steaming cups of the soothing liquid, which did wonders for frazzled nerves.

 

* * *

 

It was late by the time Frisk got home. Probably later than he should have been, but he enjoyed Asgore and Toriel’s company too much to leave. He only hoped that he could avoid most of the questions that his parents would inevitably ask him. He’d changed back into his casual clothes, a t-shirt, hoodie, and jeans. Frisk unlocked the front door and went inside. Frisk’s parents were sitting in the living room, watching TV.

“Well, look who’s home. You’ve been out pretty late. What were you up to?” Molly asked.

And there were the questions Frisk would have to answer somewhat satisfactorily. “Sorry Mom. Just running around town with friends and I lost track of time. I’ll try to be better about being home earlier from now on.” Frisk said repentantly.

“You know your Dad and I are ok with you being out and about, but the least you can do is keep us informed with a text or two, especially if you’re going to be so late. I tried calling you earlier and you didn’t answer, so I was just worried about you.”

Frisk checked his new phone. There was indeed one missed call. “I’m sorry.” Frisk mumbled.

Molly sighed. “If you’re hungry there’s some Hungarian goulash in the fridge for you.”

Frisk was pretty hungry. Asgore had offered to cook something, but Frisk had declined his offer. He’d needed to get home pretty quickly, as it was getting dark and hiking through the woods at night was not something Frisk wanted to do. Frisk microwaved the pasta dish and ate it ravenously. Frisk wondered if Papyrus would like goulash, as it _was_ reminiscent of spaghetti. Frisk knew he couldn’t be so late getting home a second time. He wouldn’t be able to skate by like that again. Frisk’s mind turned back to the events of the day. He didn’t know how long it would take the federal government to approve of the agreement, but he hoped it wouldn’t be long. He could only imagine how hard it must be on the Monsters to keep themselves underground, waiting for permission to go to the surface.

Frisk finished the meal and put his dishes in the dishwasher before going and taking a shower, changing into pajamas afterwards. When he’d finished, Frisk’s parents were not in the living room anymore. Frisk figured they’d probably gone to bed. They liked to go to go to bed early every night and lay in bed reading or playing on their tablets before going to bed. Frisk was fine with that tonight, and went into his room. Frisk relaxed in his room for a while before finally going to bed.


	7. Rift

 

A couple days later the official announcements of the agreements made with the Monsters went live around the world. It was a moment of great historical importance; nearly every news station was covering it and Frisk’s social media feeds were blowing up with comments. It was all announced in the evening, and Frisk was sure to have the TV on and to the national news channel. It was after dinner, and Frisk had snagged the TV while his parents were in the shower. Frisk already knew what they were going to announce, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to witness this historic moment.

Before long, the discussion taking place on screen about what might happen in this speech was interrupted by the beginning of the speech. The President, a tall, older man with caring features, was the first up to speak. He delivered what Frisk felt was a good speech. He spoke on mending relationships, and this agreement being the first step in creating a new era with Monster and human cooperation. He also outlined the terms of the agreement, which Frisk already knew almost by heart. He finished, and he introduced Asgore, who came from the side of the stage. Frisk noticed he was wearing a human-style suit, which considering his size had to have been custom made for him. He shook the President’s hand and approached the podium to begin his speech. After standing behind the podium, Asgore adjusted the mic as high as it would go, which wasn’t quite high enough for him but he was still audible.

He began his speech just as Frisk’s parents came out of the bathroom. Both of them were dressed in pajamas, their hair still wet from the shower. They came into the living room and set down on the couch.

“What’s goin’ on?” Norman asked.

“Big announcement about an agreement between Monsters and the government. The government is giving some land and money to the Monsters to help them get started, and in return the current Monster government more or less disbands. You’re just in time to catch Asgore’s acceptance speech.” Frisk said.

“Hmph. That is just like our government, to give stuff away without getting anything in return. At least they’re surrendering to our government’s authority.” Norman said spitefully.

Frisk was peeved at his dad’s comment. “What? Come on Dad, they needed the help. Wasn’t like they had much when the barrier broke.” Frisk retorted.

So the arguing began. Poor Molly was forced to be a middleman between the two, which was not a position anyone would envy. By the end of it, Frisk had missed almost all of Asgore’s speech, and had only managed to infuriate his father. Seeing that he had missed Asgore’s speech, Frisk stormed off to his room, hoping he could find it online to watch. Frisk slammed the door to his room, and Molly and Norman were left alone in the living room. Molly rubbed her eyes and sighed, while Norman sat with his arms crossed, ruminating quietly.

 

* * *

 

A month had passed since that first argument. The arguments with his father had only gotten worse as time went on. Molly was beside herself, unable to do anything to resolve the dispute between the two. Frisk had only become more protective of the Monsters and Norman had only become more antagonistic towards the Monsters. Molly didn’t know how much longer she could take this rift that was forming in the family. It left a silent tension between the two of them, a powder keg which threatened to blow anywhere. It loomed on the horizon of days when they should have been happy.

During this time, Frisk had been going up to the mountain and spending time there at least once a week, sometimes more if he thought he could get away with it. His parents were still unaware of his affiliation with the Monsters. Frisk didn't talk about them anymore with his parents, so they had assumed that he was moving on. In this time, Frisk had been a part of drawing up plans for the new Monster town. It was going to be a big project to create enough housing for the thousands of Monsters who were living in the Underground. Many would have to stay living underground for several months until their houses could be built. A school was also planned, and Toriel had taken it upon herself to be the headmaster for the school. No one complained about her self-appointment, and she was happy to finally be able to fulfill her dream.

Frisk was still largely the only human from the local town who had any interactions with the Monsters. There were always reporters and other rabble trying to get in to see Monsters, but these were largely kept out, only a select few being allowed in for interviews and tours. Fairview had become much busier of late, as it was the closest city to where the new Monster town would be built. It proved to be a boon for Fairview, hotels and shops enjoying the extra people in town spending money, but many in town still tended to be wary, knowing that they were not far from where the new town would be built. Frisk was thinking about this one day as he walked into Asgore's living room to find Toriel, wearing her reading glasses and sitting in her chair by the fireplace reading from sheets of loose leaf paper, while Asgore was at the table writing on some paper. It wasn't unusual for Frisk to find them both here. Toriel had pretty much moved in to Asgore's house. Much as she resisted it, it was tiring to walk all the way back home to the Ruins every day, and the only other place she could stay was at MTT Resort, which was hardly a place one could call home. Plus, with Asgore's house being right next to the exit, it made it easy to supervise the beginning phases of construction. Toriel still strongly disliked Asgore, but she was more or less forced to put aside her grudges for the time being. She couldn't do it all by herself, much as she tried sometimes. She needed his help, and he needed hers. The two had a mutually beneficial, if strained, relationship.

Frisk knocked his hand on the doorway, and the two looked up at the intruder. Toriel and Asgore's face brightened upon recognizing Frisk.

"My child! I am so glad to see you again! It's been a while since your last visit." Toriel chirped. She sat her papers down on the arm of the chair, and her glasses disappeared into her robe. She got up and walked to Frisk, and getting down on one knee pulled him into a big hug. Frisk always enjoyed being held in Toriel's warm, soft embrace. It had been over a week now since Frisk had visited, as things were busy for him at home and he'd been missing the Monsters.

Toriel let go of Frisk, and Frisk walked over to Asgore and gave him a hug too. Asgore, despite his strength, could be tender if he wanted to be.

"Howdy, Frisk. It is good to see you again. It feels like it's been a long time since we last saw you." Frisk pulled out of the embrace. Toriel shot a resentful glare at the two.

"It hasn't been that long. It's only been a week, after all. Plus, we've still been talking over the phone." Frisk said.

"We know. It's just not the same as seeing you in person, that's all." Toriel said.

Everyone returned to their seats, and Frisk pulled a chair from the dining room table to sit on. "So how's all of the construction going? Is everything going to plan?" Frisk asked.

"Well, for the most part things are going pretty well. Clearing the land to build on is taking a long time, but with time we should be able to actually start construction. We've got plenty of labor at least, between Monster volunteers and human help. Though coordinating between the two is...challenging to say the least." Toriel sighed.

Frisk's eyebrow went up. "Nothing big, I hope?"

"Oh, of course not." Toriel waved her hand dismissively. "There have been quite a few misunderstandings, but for the most part things have stayed civil."

"Maybe people just need to get to know you guys better. Has anyone gone into town before?"

The two thought about it for a moment. Asgore, looking thoughtful, was the first to speak. "Hm. No, no Monster has gone to the local town before that I can remember. We've always had human workers go into town for anything we needed."

"Maybe it’s time you guys made an appearance in town then. I know many of the workers stay in town, and many townsfolk are wary of y'all. Maybe just walking around greeting people might help ease some tension, show that y'all are people too. Plus it would be fun to show you guys around town." Frisk grinned at the thought.

Asgore rubbed his chin and Toriel tapped crossed her arms and make a clicking noise with her mouth. After several beats, Asgore spoke. "Well, I can't say I'm against it. Are you sure the people of Fairview are ready to meet us face-to-face?"

"Well, they're as ready as anyone could be I guess." Frisk shrugged.

"Well, it shouldn't be a problem to find a couple hours to go into town for a while. I would like for you to be there, Frisk, with me and Asgore." Toriel's eyes lit up. "Maybe we could even try some of this "ice cream" you talk about." Toriel smiled.

"I think that we should also take Papyrus with us when we go." Frisk said

"Are you sure that's wise?" Toriel looked doubtful.

"C'mon Toriel. Do you know anyone who's more disarming than Papyrus? No one could hate Papyrus for long."

Toriel was silent. Frisk was making a pleading expression towards her, and her heart melted under his gaze. She sighed. "Fine. He can come too if he wants."

Frisk laughed. "Yeah, he'll definitely want to come." With that settled, Frisk got to helping them with the planning that was still to be done.


	8. Surfacing

It was a few days later, and Frisk was waiting in the entryway to Asgore's house for everyone to finish getting ready to head out. It was a Saturday morning, and Frisk wanted to get moving as soon as possible. Papyrus was due to arrive at any moment, and right on cue Frisk heard a knock at the door. Frisk opened the door to find Papyrus standing there.

"Greetings, Frisk! I am very happy to see you!" Papyrus exclaimed, a big smile on his bony face.

"Papyrus! Glad to see you too. Come on in, Asgore and Toriel are just finishing getting ready to go." The skeleton walked into the entryway and Frisk closed the door behind him.

"Frisk I am so excited to see a human town! Are we going to get to try this 'ice cream' you've spoken so highly of? " Papyrus could barely contain his excitement.

"We'll have to see how it goes Papyrus. Not all humans will be as accepting as I was."

"Well then, I, the great Papyrus, with your help, will teach the humans to be accepting!" Papyrus stood triumphantly.

Footsteps were heard down the hall, and the two Boss Monsters came into the entryway. Toriel was wearing her trademark robe, but it seemed just a little bit better cared for, the folds of it made with expert precision. Asgore had trimmed his beard, and his slacks and nice button-up shirt were nicely ironed. Frisk felt like a slacker in his slightly crumpled clothes, until he remembered what Papyrus was wearing. He then figured that he wasn't that bad off and would just roll with it.

Frisk greeted the two, then the group headed out from Asgore's home. They took the path that had been carved through the forest for trucks to go back and forth between Fairview and the site of the new town. Frisk shivered a bit, pulling his jacket closer. The cold morning light didn’t do much to warm Frisk from the chilly breeze. 

It didn't take them long to reach the edge of town, and Frisk began to pick up on small cues that his companions were not completely comfortable with where they were going. Toriel stood more stiffly than usual. Asgore was a little fidgety, eyes darting around as if searching for some unseen threat. Papyrus was the only one who didn't seem to be nervous at all, which was not a surprise to Frisk. He was fidgety because he was excited, not nervous.

Before long they were standing on a main street, lines of businesses on either side of them. Up until now they hardly encountered anyone that wasn't driving. Here there were many people walking up and down the street. It didn't take long for people to start noticing the Monsters, who stood out like a sore thumb. The first reaction was something akin to fear, many backing away from the group. Frisk began to get nervous. He called out to the crowd that was forming a distance away from them.

"Hey everyone, don't worry! They won't hurt y'all. They're just here to say hi to some of the fine people of this city. Come on up, don't be shy!" Frisk smiled. Toriel gave a genuine smile and waved at the crowd. Asgore did the same, with a little less success than his ex-wife. Papyrus was beaming at the crowd, and began waving his arm enthusiastically. Still, the crowd murmured to itself, unsure of how to continue. Tensions were continuing to rise, and Frisk was getting concerned until a little girl managed to squeeze through the front of the crowd and run up to Toriel, yelling excitedly "Tu-rial! Tu-rial!"

She grabbed Toriel's leg in a ferocious hug, and Toriel was taken aback by the sudden affection the small child put forth. She bent down on one knee and gave the child a gentle hug. "Hello, little one." A lady pushed her way past the front of the crowd and stopped halfway between the crowd and the group of Monsters when she saw her child receiving a tender hug from the motherly monster. Toriel, seeing the lady standing there pulled back, and the child turned around. Seeing the lady, whom Frisk presumed was her mother, she began talking animatedly.

"Mommy, mommy! Look! It's Tu-rial! The nice lady on TV!"

"Yes, honey. I see that." She walked up to the child and picked her up, holding her close. She looked relieved. "Please don't run away from mommy again like that, ok?" 

"I'm sorry mommy. I just wanted to see Tu-rial. Hey, you should meet Tu-rial too! She's really nice." The lady hesitated, unsure of how to continue until Toriel put her right hand forward.

"Hello. My name is Toriel. I am sorry if I caused you any distress. I wouldn't have let anything happen to your child, though. They were safe with me." Toriel gave a genuine, warm smile. The woman shook Toriel's hand with some trepidation.

That became the turning point. People in the crowd began to approach the group and make introductions. Before long there was a great crowd around the Monsters, all trying to shake the hands of one of them. Frisk tried to stay out of the way as much as he could, though he did shake a few hands of his own. It was going well, and new people kept cycling into the group around the Monsters. They were at it for around an hour before the crowd thinned enough for them to move. So Frisk took them on down the street, showing them some of the shops that he like to frequent. The Monsters were making a very good effort to be friendly to anyone who approached them, and the people were generally kind towards the Monsters. Many people enjoyed Papyrus’ exuberant nature, and took selfies with the skeleton. Frisk was having a good time with the Monsters, and wanted to cross the street because the ice cream shop was on the other side of the road. Frisk began crossing the street, walking in between parked cars to step out into the road-

_Screeeeeeeeech._

The sickening _thud_ of the car impacting Frisk resonated around the street. The acrid smell of hot rubber filled the air around the crash site. Time stood still for a moment, people not believing what just happened. The driver of the car, a younger man, jumped out of the car and ran to the broken body in front of the car. Bystanders on the sidewalks began flocking towards the crash site, many pulling out cell phones. The gang of monsters clamored around, trying to figure out what had happened until Asgore, being the tallest of them all, saw Frisk's broken body on the ground and let out a strangled gasp, shocked by what he saw.

"Everyone! It's Frisk! Frisk has been hit by a car!" Horror crept across Toriel's face as she understood what Asgore had said. She sprang into action, quickly pushing her way to the front of the growing crowd. When she finally broke through the ring of people surrounding and saw Frisk, she let out a small cry, her hands covering her mouth. He was certainly injured, his left arm bent sideways at an unnatural angle. Toriel could also see bone sticking through his forearm. Blood was pooling around the back of his head where he'd hit it on the hard asphalt. She bent down and began barking orders.

"Asgore, Papyrus! I need some space. Get some of these people away!" Asgore and Papyrus began herding the crowd away, giving Toriel a little room to breathe.

Toriel took a moment to remember the training that her mother had given her many years ago. She hadn't used this kind of healing magic in a long time, and she needed to get it right. Frisk's life was in her hands. She began with magical probes, little bursts of magic to figure out where the worst of the damage was. She discovered that Frisk had severe internal damage. Several of his ribs had been broken, damaging major organs. She started with that, as he wouldn't last long if that wasn't remedied quickly. She worked as quickly as she dared, weaving complex magic which knitted Frisk's body back together. Thankfully, Frisk was mostly unconscious so he wasn't providing any resistance. After a couple of minutes, she had fixed the worst of the internal damage, and Frisk's life wasn't in immediate danger. She took a moment to catch her breath. She'd forgotten how hard it was on her to use this powerful magic. The wound on Frisk's head, while bleeding profusely, wasn't an immediate danger to his life, so she left it for the moment, opting instead to tear the sleeve of her robe and try to stop the bleeding with it. 

Once that was done, she moved to his arm, and as gently as possible set the bone back where it was supposed to be. Then, she began weaving more magic towards Frisk's arm, the bone refusing into one whole again. This took her another couple of minutes, and when she finished it she set back. She had exhausted almost all of her magical ability, and she was feeling weak and tired. This wasn't a problem, because by this time human doctors arrived and began to minister to the child, taking him into a large car with flashing lights on it. Asgore came to her side and helped her up. Once she was up, she tried to stand on her own and nearly fell over, Asgore catching her. Part of her hated needing Asgore to prop her up, but a part of her appreciated the help. The three of them stood there, watching the doctor's car leave.

Papyrus had been quiet up to this point. He spoke to the other two in a low tone that they had never heard from him before. "Is Frisk going to be ok?"

Toriel nodded. "Yes. He'll be fine."


	9. Healing

Frisk awoke slowly, pleasantly, as if from a wonderful dream. He couldn’t remember what the dream was, even so soon after waking, but it must have been nice for him to feel so good. Frisk slowly opened his eyes and was blinded by the bright white room. He was confused about why he wasn’t waking up in his bed at home until some of the memories came back to Frisk. He remembered starting to cross the road…then…something happened. There were fragments floating around in his head about anything after that, but he couldn’t piece them together right then and there. Either way, Frisk’s thoughts were interrupted by his parents, who had noticed he had woken up.

“Frisk! You’re awake! Oh thank God you’re alright.” Molly said, a few tears running down her face. She was sitting right next to Frisk’s bed, and she grabbed his hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze. “The doctor wasn’t sure about the extent of the damage to your head, but it sounds like you got lucky kiddo. There was hardly any other damage, other than bruising.” She sniffled, wiping the tears from her eyes with her free hand.

“It’s a miracle is what it is.” Norman was sitting next to Molly.

Frisk spoke, his voice dry and hoarse. “What happened? Where am I?” Frisk looked down. He had several wires and tubes coming from his arms and torso. Frisk vaguely wondered if what each of them was for. The room looked like what Frisk expected a hospital to look like. Most of the room was white, but there were a few colorful accents adorning the walls. Frisk’s parents were sitting on Frisk’s right, in front of the window. Afternoon light streamed into the room from the window. 

“You were hit by a car, Frisk, so you’re in the hospital. The doctor wasn’t sure if you’d be fine, but he did say if you woke up your chances were good at a full recovery. I’m happy to see you awake so soon. The doctor figured you might be out for a few days, but it’s only been a few hours.” Norman said.

Frisk mulled over his father’s words for a bit, digesting them, trying to find in his memory of what happened. It was like slogging through mud trying to think. Frisk had the fleeting thought that he was probably under some serious drugs right now. He found himself getting sleepy again. Soon, Frisk was softly snoring, dreaming disjointed, fragmented moments from the day. None of it made any sense to Frisk, but as he was watching these moments play out before his eyes, there was a moment when he was lying on the ground and he couldn’t move. He could barely keep his eyes open, but he watched as Toriel took his arm, which he realized then was broken, and put it back together, somehow. Frisk watched the flesh knit back together over where the bone had previously stuck through. It seemed so surreal, yet Frisk felt déjà vu. The edges of his vision began to darken, however, until he was left in dark, dreamless sleep.

Frisk slept off and on for the rest of the day, succumbing to the effects of the drugs. His parents were mostly quiet, content to know that their son was going to be ok. He would need time to heal, but it was nothing that a few days in the hospital wouldn’t fix. 

After Frisk had woken up and fallen asleep again, Molly got up to use the bathroom. As she walked down the corridor, she passed the visitor lobby where the small group of Monsters had been sitting since a couple hours after he arrived at the hospital. Molly passed by them, averting her gaze, until she was in the bathroom. It was decorated like the rest of the hospital, white and sterile. After she’d finished her business, and was washing her hands, she turned the water off and looked in the mirror, pondering the group in the lobby, the fact that they were there at all, even going so far as to wait around, knowing that they weren’t even allowed to see Frisk perplexed Molly. Norman was very adamant about keeping them out of the room.

Molly dried her hands off, throwing the paper towel in the trash as she left the bathroom. She started walking back to the room, but stopped at the visitor’s lobby for their floor, and peered into it. The room wasn’t very big. It had several chairs arranged around the walls, with a few small tables in the room. They were sitting there, Alphys and Undyne were sharing earbuds and watching something on a phone. Papyrus, Toriel, and Sans were trying to complete a puzzle on a table in the back corner of the room, though Toriel nor Sans appeared particularly interested in the puzzle, even if the tall skeleton was thoroughly enjoying himself. Toriel did appear to be exhausted, but still she stayed awake. Asgore sat a seat over from Alphys, and was staring blankly at the space near Toriel.

Molly sighed, tense at what she was about to do, and pushed the door open. She stepped through the doorway and stopped a few paces past the door frame, crossing her hands in front of her. Asgore was snapped out of his trance by the sound of the door opening, and seeing that it was Molly, was both fearful and hopeful. He stood up and greeted Molly. “Howdy. What can I do for you?” He said as cheerfully as he could manage at the moment. Hearing Asgore’s words everyone turned around to see who the newcomer was. Toriel sat up straight, paying rapt attention to Molly, worry creasing her brow. Sans, too, appeared worried despite the permanent grin on his face. Undyne and Alphys pulled the earbuds from their ears and looked to Molly. Even Papyrus stopped working on the puzzle and gave his full attention to Molly.

Molly spoke, her voice soft with a slight quiver. She avoided their eyes, looking everywhere except at them. “I guess you guys should know about Frisk’s condition. You’ve been waiting pretty patiently. Part of me is surprised y’all are still here, but with the way Frisk described y’all, it’s not surprising.” She took a breath. “He’s fine. He’s gonna be fine. He woke up just a little while ago. Wasn’t up long, but we got a chance to talk to him. Doctor didn’t think that was odd, and he thinks that Frisk will be fine.” Another pause. “It’s a miracle that he’s even in the state he’s in, all things considered.” She gave a small smile. The room gave a collective sigh of relief, Toriel especially. She was wiping away a few tears, knowing that Frisk was going to be ok. 

Molly turned around to leave, but before she could leave Undyne leapt out of her chair and called out to Molly. “Hey, wait! There’s something you should know, even if Toriel didn’t want us to tell you.” 

Toriel looked confused for a moment, until recognition crossed her face. “No. She doesn’t need to know.” Her voice was cold and serious.

“No, Toriel. She does. She deserves to know what you did for her son.” Undyne’s expression was serious and intense. She turned to Molly. “Did you know that Toriel saved Frisk’s life? That there was a very good chance he wouldn’t have made it here had she not helped him.” Molly looked very concerned. Undyne continued. “Frisk was in really bad shape after the accident. Toriel was there, and she used her powerful healing magic, saving Frisk from the brink of death! She dang near killed herself from the effort too! She could hardly even _stand_ she’d pushed herself so hard. All to save your son.” Undyne crossed her arms.

Everyone was silent. Molly was floored, unable to understand what Undyne had said. There were monsters that had the power to heal? Not only that, but one had saved her son from certain death? She was struggling to believe it. It seemed so fantastical, so impossible. But impossible had happened when the Monsters came to the surface. She figured she would ask the monster who had supposedly done it. She looked at Toriel, who was watching her intently. “Is this true? Did you really save my son?”

Toriel was silent for a few moments. Then she spoke, her voice strong but not loud. “Yes. I did. Frisk’s life was in danger, so I did the only thing I knew to do in that moment. I used my magic to help him. I had forgotten how laborious the more potent healing magics are.”

Molly sensed that Toriel was telling the truth, and was left speechless by her statement. Maybe she had misjudged the monsters all along, and Frisk was right. It was a struggle for her to reconcile the kindness that she was just learning about and the anger she still carried. There was still a few questions lingering in the back of her mind.

“Magic? You can’t be serious.” She said with incredulity.

“Yes, magic. Monsters and humans can both do magic, though Monsters tend to be much more adept at it.”

Molly had seen the reports on the news about it, but could scarcely believe it. Magic was _real_? It shouldn’t be possible…but there it was.

Molly spoke with trepidation. “Can I…see some?”

Toriel nodded and conjured a small flame in the palm of her hand, its color a light purple. Molly was amazed at how casually she held fire in her hand. It just seemed…natural to her.

Still in shock, Molly asked “Why not tell me?”

Toriel closed her hand, putting the flame out and sighed. “Because I was afraid that you wouldn’t believe me. That it would only bring further suspicion on us. That…” She paused, taking a shuddering breath. “…that you would be even angrier towards me for letting your son get hurt on my watch.” She looked away, wiping at her eyes. “It’s my fault. I should have been watching him more closely, and I thought I was but it all happened so fast, I couldn’t get there in time…” She trailed off, looking increasingly distressed.

Molly’s heart was breaking, seeing how much Toriel cared about Frisk. Looking around the room, she could identify the care and concern all of them had. It was obvious now, but until then she’d never had a chance to see it. It warmed her heart to know that they cared so much for Frisk’s well-being. She couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll be right back.” She paused in the doorway. “Thank you.” She said, before closing the door behind her.

Molly walked back towards Frisk’s room, stopping right outside the door. She was thinking about what she was about to do, and knew that it wouldn’t be easy. Taking a deep breath and collecting her thoughts, she walked quietly into Frisk’s room. Norman looked up from his phone and smiled at Molly’s entrance. He was trying to be quiet to not wake Frisk up.

Molly sat down in her chair next to Norman. She was lost in thought, trying to decide what she would do with the information that she had just received. How would Norman react to that knowledge? His perspective on Monsters was certainly not favorable. She’d witnessed her fair share of yelling matches between the two of them. She hoped it wouldn’t turn into that.

Molly sat there in turmoil for a few minutes, before finally working up the courage to speak up. She was quiet, trying to avoid waking Frisk up. “Norman, uh, there’s something you ought to know.” Norman looked at his wife, who was staring blankly ahead of her, with unease.

She continued. “I, uh…” She swallowed.”…just learned that Frisk’s good fortune was thanks to intervention. It wasn’t just chance.” Molly fidgeted, nervous about getting to the point. Norman was confused, to say the least. What kind of intervention helps in a car accident? He couldn’t think of anything off the top of his head that would fit with Molly’s statement. So he opted to stay silent, and let her continue.

Molly sighed. She needed to get to the point. “Frisk is only in such a good condition because a Monster helped him.”

Norman paused. “No, that can’t be right. Why would they help Frisk? What could they even _do_ to help him?” Norman was becoming fearful that Frisk had been near the Monsters at all.

“They healed him, Norman.” She looked at her husband. “They literally used healing magic.”

Norman didn’t believe her. “C’mon Molly. Magic? You don’t really believe the news reports that magic is real, do you?”

Molly was adamant, however. “Norman, they made _fire_ and held it in their _hand_. I _saw_ it with my own two eyes!”

“Saw it? When?”

“Just a couple minutes ago. They’re _still_ in the waiting room down the hall. They haven’t left, even though we’ve denied them seeing Frisk for almost five hours now.” Molly’s eyes pleaded with Norman. “Come on, Norman. Would it really hurt to let them see Frisk? We’ll be right here the whole time.”

His answer was quick. “No. Absolutely not. Molly, we can’t risk anything happening to Frisk. I couldn’t forgive myself if something happened.” Norman looked haunted.

Molly was exasperated. “Norman, we’re in probably the safest place possible. If something happens medical care is _literally_ five feet away. Plus, being a hospital the security is pretty tight. If they _did_ do something, they wouldn’t be able to leave.” Molly paused for a moment, looking away from her husband. “Plus, they’re really worried about him. I could see it on their faces.” She took a breath. “Look, it doesn’t have to be for long. Just let them have a few minutes with Frisk, please?” She looked imploringly at Norman. He sighed and rubbed his temples. She was not going to give this up, was she?

“Fine.” He said softly. “They can come in. But they’d better realize that I’ll be watching them like a hawk.” His expression was fierce. Molly relaxed, and nodded.

“I’ll go tell them.” She got up and left, and walked back to the visitor room.

Molly got up and quickly walked back to the visitor’s room, afraid that Norman might change his mind if she took too long. When she walked into the room, she discovered that none of them had resumed what they were doing prior to her leaving. They were all on the edge of their seat, and Toriel was pacing back and forth in the back of the room. They all looked keenly at Molly’s entrance. She beckoned to them. “Follow me. Please be quiet as Frisk is sleeping right now.” Molly was about to walk out the door, but instead she paused. “And…please be cautious. My husband isn’t so forgiving.” With that she left the room.

Before leaving Toriel spoke to the group. “Best behavior, ok?” She had a stern look on her face. No one would dare do anything crazy with what was on the line right now. Frisk’s future friendship with them was on the line here.

The all filed out of the room, and grouped up close to Molly who waited for them. Once they’d all filed out, Molly walked to Frisk’s room, the group trailing behind her. Everyone they passed stared at the odd group, and it made Alphys more than a little uncomfortable, a small sweat started to form on her face, along with a blush.

They made it to Frisk’s room and everyone slowly funneled in, spreading out around Frisk’s bed. Norman was tense, his gaze watchful, giving away his distrust. Even with everyone being quiet, the commotion of having so many people come into Frisk’s room woke him up. He snapped awake once he realized who was there in the room. He was confused seeing the Monsters in his room. 

“Hey…guys? What’re you doin’ here?” Frisk was looking back and forth between his parents and the monsters, trying to figure out what changed while he was asleep.

“It’s ok, Frisk.” Molly said, to pacify Frisk. “We let ‘em be here.” Norman looked at his wife, a glare in his eyes. “At least for a little while.”

Frisk couldn’t understand their change of heart. “Wh-why?” He asked.

“Well, Frisk. We, uh…learned what they did for you. That they saved your life.”

Frisk was perplexed. “What? How?”

“Toriel healed you. If she hadn’t helped you we…may not have had you here today.” Molly’s eyes became distant.

Frisk had a lot of admiration for Toriel then. “Toriel…thank you.” Frisk said it in the sincerest voice he could muster.

Toriel smiled. “It wasn’t just me. I couldn’t have done it without Asgore and Papyrus. They kept the crowd away from me so that I could work.”

Frisk was beaming. “Thank you, Asgore. Thank you, Papyrus.”

“NYEH HEH HEH! The Great Papyrus always helps his friends in need!” Papyrus bellowed. He struck a heroic pose.

Asgore looked a little sheepish. “You’re welcome Frisk. It was the least we could do.”

The group talked for a while longer. Frisk enjoyed being able to spend time with the Monsters without having to do it behind his parent’s back. The group was as lively as ever, all relieved that Frisk would be ok. Toriel and Sans got into an epic pun battle, which left even Undyne laughing. Unfortunately, before long the sun went down and visiting hours ended and they all had to leave. Frisk was unhappy to see them go, but go they did. Molly and Norman decided that Molly would stay the night in Frisk’s room and Norman would go home. Molly didn’t want to leave her son alone in the hospital, and one of them needed to go home to get some good sleep to relieve the other in the morning. So Norman kissed Frisk goodnight, and left.

Frisk and Molly sat in silence for a few minutes after Norman left. Frisk had the TV on and was flipping through the channels, unable to find anything he wanted to watch. Frisk sighed. He probably should just go to sleep. Molly, however, spoke up first.

“They seem really nice.” She said.

“Yeah, they are.” Frisk replied.

They were both silent for a minute. “Maybe I was too quick to judge.” Molly said. “I was just so afraid of you getting hurt again…” She trailed off. “Neither me or your dad could’ve forgiven ourselves if something had happened to you by their hand. Perhaps they deserve a second chance, if for nothing else than for what they did for you.”

Frisk was ecstatic that his mom was warming up to the Monsters. There was finally hope that he might be able to have a real relationship with them, maybe even do more ambassadorial duties. His parents, too, might find a place in their hearts for the compassionate beings. Frisk began to get sleepy. Being good company for a couple hours wore Frisk out, and soon he was asleep.


	10. Forgiveness

Frisk was going to be in the hospital for a few days, so the Monsters took turns keeping Frisk company. Undyne and Alphys spent their time showing Frisk some of the anime that they found, Sans and Papyrus traded jokes with Frisk and shared puzzles, Toriel brought books that she would read to Frisk, and Asgore would bring new flowers. Frisk’s parents both tried to be there as much as they could be, but eventually Norman had to go back to work. Molly’s job allowed her to be flexible enough to stay at the hospital with Frisk, though she would leave Norman alone with Frisk for a few hours every evening so that she could go home, take a shower, and relax a little bit.

It was the third evening Norman was left alone with Frisk. Toriel was there at the moment. It made sense for her to be there in the evening, so that she could be working during the day. Asgore had just left, along with Molly, and Toriel had brought along a couple books, apparently to read to Frisk. One of them was a book filled with snail facts. Norman couldn’t believe that there were enough noteworthy facts about snails to fill a book, but it turns out he was wrong. She set next to Frisk’s bed and _literally_ read fact after fact from this book. She was clearly enjoying herself, and if Norman had been in a better mood he might have found it comical. Norman could tell that Frisk was struggling with boredom through his polite façade, but it seemed that Toriel was not picking up on it. Perhaps she was enjoying reading the book to Frisk too much to notice.

Either way, before long Frisk was quietly asleep. Toriel looked up from her reading, after giving what she found to be a particularly noteworthy fact, to find Frisk asleep. She smiled and closed the book, putting a small slip of paper in the book to mark where she was. She set the book on top of the other one, which was on a small table near the bed. She looked at Norman and smiled. Her spectacles disappeared into her robe. Norman had been largely silent with the large group of Monsters, but this was the first time he was (mostly) alone with one and had any desire to speak to them. Norman figured he’d seize the opportunity.

“Hey, uh, Toriel, is it?” Norman asked quietly, not wanting to wake Frisk up.

“Yes, my name is Toriel. You remembered.” She winked. Norman couldn’t help but think that it would have been hard for him to forget.

“Can I speak with you outside, so as to not disturb Frisk?”

Toriel looked a little uneasy. “Of course. Frisk getting the rest he needs is important.”

The two got up and walked quietly out of the room, closing the door until it was only open a crack. Norman leaned on the doorframe and crossed his arms, and Toriel simply clasped her hands in front of her.

"What can I do for you, Norman?"

Turns out she was good at names too, Norman mused. "I have some questions I would like to ask of you. Do you mind?"

"Of course not! I would be happy to assist you in any way I can."

"Good. First question: why were you there when Frisk got hit?"

Toriel hesitated. How to tell the truth without giving away that Frisk had been planning to be there all along? Maybe she could get away with a half-truth. "Well, Frisk had planned to meet us in town. He wanted to show us around and meet some of the people. I figured that would be a good thing, as many of the workers on the new city have housing in town. He walked us around town, and we greeted anyone who wanted to meet us. It was fun, meeting all the new people. I had my attention off Frisk for one moment, and then..." She trailed off. "You know what happened next. I thought I was keeping a close eye on him, but I guess I wasn't." She looked guilt-ridden. She blamed herself for what happened, Norman thought.

"So Frisk had a way of communicating with y'all, then. Else, he wouldn't have known to be there."

"Yes. We talked to him using our cell phone technology. Even if it's outdated by human standards, it's still sufficient for calling."

Norman wasn't happy that his son had maintained contact against his wishes. At least he hadn't seen them in person until today. Also explains why he still cared so much after being apart for over a month. "I see. I'll have to talk to him about that." Toriel winced, knowing that she'd just gotten Frisk into some trouble. She hadn't wanted to lie to Norman though, but perhaps the blow would be softer if he didn't know Frisk had been sneaking out to see them.

"Please go easy on him. It's partly my fault, letting it continue even against your wishes. I knew you had forbidden it, but...I...I..." She struggled to complete her sentence. She took a deep breath, calming herself. "...I wasn't ready to lose him. Not again." Sadness had creeped into her expression. Norman thought he understood, but he wanted to clarify.

"You really love Frisk, don't you?" Norman asked solemnly.

Toriel was silent for several seconds. "Yes. I do. Being able to be a part of Frisk's life is like getting the time with my children that I never had. He reminds me of the two in many ways. I see Asriel's sensitivity in the way he cares for everyone, but Chara's bravery when he comes to their defense. He's such a good kid." Toriel's eyes were a little watery.

Norman was silent. "I see. At first, I was afraid that y'all were 'friends' with him out of some sort of obligation for him freeing you. Or worse, that your friendship was merely a way to get something from Frisk. It seems, however, that I was wrong. At least about you, if not the others." Norman paused for a moment.

Norman continued. "I was afraid that y'all were going to hurt my kid again. Hurting me is one thing. Hurting my kid? That's a whole other deal. Forgiving someone for hurting my kid is much harder than forgiving someone who hurt me." Both of their expressions darkened. "Frisk was right though. Y'all don't want to hurt anyone. Saving my kid's life proved that. The last thing I needed was to understand your motivations. I appreciate your honesty, even if it would get Frisk in trouble to be honest. Maybe you might make a good role model for Frisk." Toriel's expression grew hopeful.

"Does that mean...?" She trailed off, barely daring to hope.

"Yeah. Frisk can go and see y'all if he wants to. I can't find any other reasons to keep him away from y'all."

Toriel was ecstatic. No more meeting behind their backs! Everyone else would be so excited to be able to freely spend time with Frisk. She smiled broadly. "Thank you Norman. You have no idea what this means to us."

Norman couldn't help but smile too. "No, I don't. But I intend to find out. Let’s check on Frisk, make sure he's still ok." Norman opened the door, and started to walk in, but stopped before going in. "And Toriel?" She looked at him. "Thank you." Norman walked into the room, and Toriel followed, the two being quiet in case Frisk was still asleep, which he was.

When Frisk woke up, Norman informed him of his decision to let Frisk spend time with the Monsters. Frisk was elated at his dad's change of heart. Frisk was excited by the prospect of being able to actually help the Monsters, along with the fun stuff that he could do. Molly was surprised that he had relaxed his stance towards the Monsters so quickly. Whatever he had talked about with Toriel must have been pretty convincing. Toriel informed the others through text about the lifted ban. The other Monsters, of course, were overjoyed at Frisk's ban on seeing them was lifted, and all celebrated each in their own way.


	11. Reconciliation

Frisk awoke with a start. Another night, another nightmare. Some part of Frisk had hoped that they would become less and less frequent, as that horrible day became farther and farther away from him. Yet, they persisted. There were few nights that Frisk got a peaceful night's sleep, all other nights being plagued by the same dream. A nightmare that always ended the same way. Frisk didn't know how much longer he could take it. He was becoming increasingly afraid of sleep, and he didn't know who he could turn to for help. At least, help that wouldn't recommend committing him to an insane asylum. He certainly felt that he could not tell Toriel, and besides she wouldn't believe him anyways. He wasn't prepared to tell any of the others about it. No one he could tell would believe him.

Frisk rubbed his eyes. Maybe something warm to drink would help him. He got out of bed, and walked into the kitchen, searching for something warm to drink. He thought maybe he might make some tea for himself. Asgore had given Frisk some of the tea he used, and it would usually let Frisk get through the rest of the night quietly. He poured some water into their electric kettle and turned it on, waiting for the water to heat up. Frisk leaned on the counter and yawned. He was so tired, yet still wired, unable to sleep. It was the worst of both worlds. He wanted to sleep yet he couldn't.

The kettle had finally gotten hot enough, so Frisk poured himself some of the water into a cup. As he was steeping the tea, he turned around to get some honey from the cabinet and nearly screamed, but managed to keep himself quiet. Molly was standing in the doorway to the kitchen. He wasn't expecting to see anyone there, and given he'd just woken up from the nightmare he was on edge.

"Jeez Mom, don't startle me like that. Nearly gave me a heart attack." Frisk said, trying to catch his breath. 

"Oh, I'm sorry Frisk. I didn't mean to startle you. I just heard you messing around in the kitchen and thought I'd check on you. Are you ok?" She asked.

Frisk was hugely conflicted. He was so tired of hiding the reasons he didn't get a good sleep from his parents. They knew something was up. They'd tried to figure out what Frisk was battling, but they never guessed it. How could they? If it didn't seem so real Frisk would have long ago written it off as a nightmare. But, the guilt of it demanded that he keep the secret, continue to carry the burden. How could his parents forgive him for what he'd done if they'd ever found out?

Frisk let out a small, dry laugh. That logic sounded so much like what Alphys had used to justify keeping the amalgamates secret. Molly looked quizzically at Frisk.

"What's so funny?" She asked.

"Ha, it's nothing Mom. Just a funny thought." He leaned on the counter, grateful for its support. "Mom, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course you can. What's up?" She gave her full attention to Frisk.

Frisk paused, trying to find the right words. "Mom, would you love me no matter what I did?" He asked solemnly.

Deep concern crossed her face. "Of course I would. What did you do that would make you think I wouldn't love you anymore?"

Frisk paused again. He lost the nerve to continue. "Eh, just forget about it. It's nothing." Frisk went over to the cabinet and grabbed the honey.

"Frisk, you know you can tell me anything, right?" Molly said.

He had started to add some honey to the tea, but froze at his mom's words. He set the bottle down and sighed. "Yeah. I do." Frisk picked up the honey and added some to his tea. Molly walked over to Frisk, and began rubbing his back. He picked up the cup and took a drink of the sweet liquid, hoping that he might find some courage. How could he explain it to her? She'd struggled to believe him when he'd tried to tell her about the Monsters, let alone telling her about his ability to time travel.

"Mom, can we go and have a seat in the living room?" She nodded, and the two of them walked into the living room, Frisk carrying his steaming cup. They both picked a seat on the couch, and Frisk nursed his tea for several seconds, trying to come up with a good way to explain what had been bothering him for over a month now.

Frisk stared into his cup, unwilling to make eye contact with his mom. "Mom, I need to explain something first. It's about my time in the Underground." She looked compassionately at Frisk, and resumed rubbing his back.

"You're totally not going to believe this, but it’s the truth. When I was in the Underground, before the barrier broke, I was able to time travel. To an extent." Molly started to speak, but Frisk stopped her. "It wasn't knowing what people were going to say before they said it that proved it to me. Nor was it knowing what they would do before they did it. These only confirmed it for me. The first time I realized I had this power..." Frisk paused, starting to get emotional. "It was when I...killed Toriel." Frisk couldn't keep himself together anymore and started crying into his hands. Molly couldn't believe what she was hearing from Frisk. No one could time travel, could they? He was right about Monsters, and they didn't believe him. This was even more extraordinary, should it be true. Frisk certainly seemed to believe it. 

"Awww, Frisk. It's ok, Toriel's alive and well now, thanks to you. They're just bad dreams, Frisk." She said consolingly.

"You don't understand, Mom. It wasn't just a dream; I really wish I could say it was. Things would be so much easier if I could say it was. No, it all happened. It was all too real." The sobs kept him from speaking for a minute. "Mom, when she died she didn't hold any hate towards me. Even while she was dying she wanted to protect me. Dying by my hand. Why would she let me kill her Mom? She was so kind and protective of me, I didn't want to kill her, but I was so scared..." Frisk was getting hysterical, old wounds opening up. Molly pulled her son close, wrapping her arms around him, letting him cry into her shoulder.

"I...I killed her and I cried so much and I felt so despicable and dirty and unforgivable that I..." He stopped, struggling to talk over the emotions raging through his soul.

Getting himself just barely under control he continued, "...I couldn't live with what I'd done. I couldn't imagine what y'all might think of me if I made it back. So I took the...cowardly way out."

Molly was horrified. "Frisk...you really did that?"

Frisk was unable to do anything but nod into Molly's shoulder, the tears were coming so fast.

Molly began to cry too. Now she understood why Frisk had nightmares. 

"Oh, Frisk. Why didn't you tell me sooner? We could have gotten you help" She didn't want to ask the next question, but continued anyways. She needed to know. "Frisk...how are you here with us today?"

Frisk's sobbing had subsided slightly. "That's the worst part about it all. After I...died...I was suddenly back in front of Toriel's house. Like nothing had happened. She was there, waiting for me as if I'd never arrived at her house. It felt like a cheat, a lie. There was no way it could have been true, but it was. When I saw her, I turned and I ran. I thought she was a ghost, or some spirit sent to torment me. But no, I...I quickly discovered that it was actually her. She didn't even remember what happened. It was like it never happened. But it did happen. I'm so sure of that. It was all too real to write off as a dream. Too real..."

“That was how I discovered my power. To rewind time.”

Frisk had pulled away, wiping his nose with his hand, and was now sitting next to his mom, staring off into space. He looked haunted, like the ghost of his past had refused to relent.

“Frisk, if that’s true…then you have an opportunity of a lifetime.” Frisk looked confused. “A chance to do it again. Frisk, it’s like you said. It’s as if it never even happened. Why so be so sad?”

“Because it doesn’t change the fact that I did it, Mom. I always feel afraid that if she knew the things I’d done that she wouldn’t be able to forgive me. How could she?”

“Frisk, I think she would be more than happy to forgive you.” Frisk was astonished. “Frisk, I know it’s easy to think that if people knew who we really are, and the things we’ve done, that they would never be able to forgive us. That they would turn away, disgusted. But people do forgive, especially when you’re up front with them. You know why? Because no one’s perfect Frisk. We all make mistakes, and we understand that others make mistakes as well.”

Frisk had finished his tea, and feeling sleepy, he got up to go to bed. Plus, he didn't want to keep his mom up any longer than he already had. She gave him a final hug before going to bed herself. Frisk went into the kitchen and put his mug in the sink before going back to his room. He climbed under the covers, a thousand thoughts running through his head. A battle waged over whether he would tell Toriel or not. Frisk would not get much sleep that night, as he pondered that horrible question.

 

* * *

 

Frisk's mind continued to be occupied by the question throughout the next day. It wasn't something that he could answer easily. Telling her would be far harder than telling his mom, and considering how much it hurt to tell his mom he wasn't sure he could handle telling Toriel. At least mom's reaction wasn't one of anger, disgust, or any of the multitudes of reactions Frisk had expected. Maybe his mom was right; maybe she could find it in her heart to forgive him after all. Either way, Frisk wasn't sure he could hold on to keeping that secret from her any longer.

He decided that he couldn't take it any longer. Should he continue with keeping this secret, Frisk felt that he would eventually cause any relationship he had with Toriel to fall apart because his guilt would be too much. Maybe his reasons were selfish, but he needed to know if she could forgive him.

If he was going to tell her though, it needed to be done in person. This was too important to do over the phone, or heaven forbid in a text. He sent his mom a text that he would not be home because he was going up to the mountain to talk to Toriel. She sent him back an encouraging message, and it helped him bolster his courage.

He walked to the Underground, and up the stairs to Asgore's home. He hoped she was in here. Sometimes she would be out and about getting things set up for the eventual move to the surface. However, today she was there in Asgore's home. She was sitting at the table, numerous papers spread out before her. She was squinting at the small text through her spectacles. Frisk wasn't sure what she was working on, but he didn't find that to be important at the moment. Instead, he was dealing with an intense dread about what was to come. He wasn't going to give himself time to get cold feet though, and quickly approached the kitchen table, taking a seat adjacent to Toriel. She looked up from her work.

"Ah, Frisk! Hello, I wasn't expecting to see you today." She caught that he obviously had something weighing on him. "Frisk, is something the matter?" She set down her pen, indicating he had her full attention.

Frisk took a few deep breaths, trying to keep his head clear. "Yeah. I need to talk to you about something. It sounds loony, impossible. But I need to tell you. Maybe you might be able to forgive me once you hear my tale." Frisk avoided Toriel’s gaze, choosing instead to look at the space in front of him. Toriel was perplexed by his vague statement, and was now even more on edge that something was very, very wrong.

"Toriel, do you remember the secon-" Frisk cleared his throat to correct himself. "The first time I came to your house in the Ruins?" She nodded. 

"What if I told you that was not the first time I'd been in your house?" Toriel didn't understand what Frisk was talking about.

"You were in my house before I saw you in the courtyard in front of my house? I don't know how you could have gotten past me..." Toriel said.

"I didn't get past you. Toriel, when I was in the Underground before the barrier broke, I found that I had the ability to travel back a short time into the past. I don't have it now that the barrier is broken, but I discovered it on accident in your house. I…did something that made me want to go back. To undo a very bad deed." Frisk was oddly calm and collected. Maybe he’d gotten the worst of it out last night.

“Frisk, I’m not understanding. People can’t travel back in time. Are you feeling alright?” Toriel said. She reached out a paw to try and check Frisk for a fever, but he pushed it away.

“Toriel, I know it’s hard to understand. Let me talk for a bit, and maybe you might understand.” She nodded.

“The first time I went into your house, things went normally. You showed me the kid’s room, telling me it was mine. And when I took a nap you put a piece of pie on the floor for me to have when I woke up. You were so kind and loving that I stayed for a few days, even if I was feeling homesick. Then…” Now Frisk was getting to the hard part. “…then I asked you how to leave. You went and started to destroy the door, but I interrupted you. We fought…” Frisk paused again. “…we fought and I…” Toriel was looking more and more troubled as Frisk continued.

“…I killed you.” There. He’d said it. Forgiveness

He continued. “And when I realized my mistake, my grave, grave, mistake I…I…I…” Frisk was having trouble keeping control of himself.

“…I took the cowardly way out. Next thing I knew you were standing waiting for me in your house as if nothing had ever happened.” He took a breath, clearing his mind.

“That’s why I freaked out seeing you in the house. I couldn’t understand why you were there, alive as if nothing had happened. In that moment I was scared that you were a ghost or something, sent to torment me for what I did to you. I realized pretty quickly that it was actually you, but…” Frisk wiped away a tear and sniffled. “…that didn’t change what I did to you. I thought maybe I could make it up to you by being a good kid. Sticking around, being the kid you’d always wanted. But like the first time, I couldn’t stand being away from my parents for so long. So I…selfishly asked for you to leave, but when you tried to fight me to keep me from leaving I refused to even so much as lay a finger on you. I was too afraid that I might…” Frisk was too agitated to continue.

Toriel was bewildered. Surely what Frisk was saying wasn’t true? It sounded so surreal, how could it be true? If it were true…she was disturbed by the implications. Would she have been so willing then to make sure that if Frisk left he wouldn’t hesitate to kill to protect himself? _No._ She thought. _Surely I wouldn’t…wouldn’t have forced him to kill?_

“No…it can’t be true. I wouldn’t have forced you to make that decision, would I?” Her eyes pleaded with Frisk, to tell her that this was all some stupid, cruel joke.

Frisk was irate at Toriel’s response. His voice was low. “Don’t you _dare_ blame yourself. You are not responsible for my actions. I was too stupid to realize that you wouldn’t kill me. The second time proved that.” His lip quivered from the raw emotion, and his eyes burned with fire hotter than anything.

“Frisk…” She wasn’t sure how to feel about what he’d told her. “Frisk…how am I not supposed to feel like it’s my fault? I was the one who endangered your life, was I not? I made you feel like you had no choice but to do that terrible act. Why do you hold yourself as the only one who’s responsible?” She was tearing up, thinking about the pain she put Frisk through.

Seeing that he had caused further pain, Frisk was even more distraught. “Great. That figures that all I end up doing is causing more pain for you. I should have never told you. It’s my burden, and my burden alone. I shouldn’t have-“ He was interrupted by Toriel grabbing him into a tight embrace. He was shocked by the impulsive act.

Toriel’s voice was unsteady. “Frisk, no one should have to carry a burden like that by themselves. I can’t imagine what that must have been like, to keep such a heavy secret. I’m sorry that I caused you so much pain. Can you find forgiveness for an old hag like me?”

Frisk was blubbing in Toriel’s arms. “Of course I can. I never blamed you for any of it. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have…”

Toriel interrupted him. “Shhhh. It’s all in the past Frisk. I forgive you too.” Frisk couldn’t believe those words. She had actually forgiven him. He had come hoping for forgiveness, redemption, but hadn’t expected to find it. And yet, here it was in this caring embrace. He was in awe at her capacity to forgive him.

And so the two stayed like that for many minutes, basking in the new understanding that had been forged between the two of them.


	12. Epilouge

A year had passed since the barrier broke. Much progress had been made for the new city, but its completion was still several years out. The people in the Underground were largely patient, and were fine with waiting. Everyone had already been waiting for many years, what’s a few more? Plus, it helped that it was arranged to allow rotations of Monsters in and out of the Underground freely, and soon Fairview had limited numbers of Monsters roaming around. There were a fair share of misunderstandings, and some close calls, but in general things went well, all things considered.

Before letting Monsters free to roam in the city, however, public education programs were designed and implemented to teach the Monsters about how things are on the surface, teaching things like manners, laws, and politics. The idea was to help Monsters integrate into human society without losing the culture they’d developed underground. At the very least, it kept Monsters from doing dangerous things in the town, and reduced the number of misunderstandings, but it was still going to be a long road to full acceptance.

Frisk, knowing that Toriel was able to forgive him, told his other friends in time. They all proved just as accepting as Toriel, though that wasn’t to say it was easy. It was hard for them at first to learn that the kid they thought was completely innocent had dust on his hands after all. Still, they worked through it and their friendships were stronger because of it.

A celebration was planned for the anniversary date of the barrier being broken. Frisk and his family were invited to go, and all of them were happy to oblige. Frisk’s parents had grown fond of the Monsters in this time, spending many evenings enjoying food and games with them. It was hard for them to not grow closer, as Frisk was often inviting them for dinner, or over at their houses. Frisk had also started to spend more time lobbying for the Monsters, and told the world of his story. He’d become more or less a celebrity in that time, and travelled where and when he could, given that he was still in school after all.

The celebration was going to be held in one of the areas cleared for construction. Tents and booths were set up, and even a few smaller carnival rides were acquired for the day. It was shaping up to be a big celebration, as was fitting for being the first anniversary of the Monster’s freedom.

Frisk and his family arrived at the location of the event around noon, already seeing large crowds of Monsters roaming around the grounds. Frisk got out of the car quickly, and called to his parents who were taking their time.

“Hey, hurry up! I wanna get to everything before it gets dark!”

“Calm down Frisk, it’ll all still be there.” Norman chuckled.

The trio walked towards the first group of colorful tents. These seemed to be an assortment of games, ranging from typical carnival games to games he’d never seen before. Frisk approached one of the booths, and the Monster manning it was a humanoid, foxlike Monster with red fur and a long, bushy tail which was tipped with white fur.

“’Ello! Would ya like to play a game of copy dog?” He exclaimed.

“A game of what?” Frisk asked.

“Copy dog! Match my bullet patterns and I’ll give you one of these as a prize.” He held up a small piece of paper. “Ya can redeem these at some booths for free food and other items. Wanna give it a go?”

Frisk paused, unsure how to tactfully state that humans, at this point, don’t know how to use magic. _It seems the education programs have a way to go_ , Frisk thought.

Frisk smirked. “Well, probably not as I don’t know how to use magic.”

The Monster was aghast at Frisk’s response. “Whaaaaat?! As old as ‘ya are ‘ya don’t know _any_ magic at all?!” He looked up at Frisk’s parents, who were standing behind Frisk, with complete disbelief.

Norman started to speak up, but Frisk coughed, causing him to stop. Frisk spoke up in his place. “Well, humans haven’t practiced magic in centuries. It’s not really that odd for a human these days to not know any forms of magic.”

The poor Monster was deeply embarrassed, and apologized profusely. Frisk waved him off. “It’s fine. I’m not offended, just figured you ought to know for future reference.” Frisk winked at the monster and left, his parents in tow.

Frisk from that point on gravitated towards the games, and it seemed as if there were more than a few games which required at least a little bit of magic to play. Frisk figured it was a good thing there were hardly any humans here for the celebration. Many Monsters were still largely unaware of what humanity was like. It was just going to take time.

Frisk and even his parents had a lot of fun playing the various games that they were capable of playing. Frisk had accumulated a decent number of the little slips of paper, and was eager to redeem some of them. He and his family walked over to another group of tents and booths, most of these giving out various treats and delicacies. These were grouped around a central courtyard, which had many tables to sit and eat at. Frisk scanned the various stands, seeing some Monsters he recognized, and some he didn’t. He saw the Snowdin shopkeeper, Muffet, Asgore, and even Burgerpants was there. Frisk knew Toriel wouldn’t have a booth, as she’d be too busy keeping everything running to man a booth herself. 

“So Frisk, what’s good?” Norman asked his son.

“Hmmmm…” Frisk thought on that for a second. “I know the bunny over there makes a really good cinnamon bunny. It’s basically a cinnamon roll, so it’s pretty good. Bet Asgore has some of his tea, which is always expertly brewed. Burgerpants over there will probably have some MTT-brand stuff. Not a huge fan myself, but some people really love it.” Frisk lowered his voice. “And you’ll probably want to avoid Muffet, the spider lady over there. Her stuff is a little…janky.” Frisk had one of her pastries before, but he figured for his parent’s sake he’d better not eat another. “Beyond that, I don’t know what else is offered. Either way, I’m kinda hungry.”

“Well, let’s walk the circle and see what they have.” Norman said.

So they walked the circle, examining what each was offering. Norman and Molly eventually settled on sandwiches from Burgerpants, and Frisk had gotten a couple of cinnamon bunnies from the Snowdin shopkeeper. He only had to use is coupons on one, as Frisk thought he’d only bought one, but when he sat down with the bag, he found two in there. Frisk was surprised, but certainly not angry. The three of them sat down and ate their food items. Frisk enjoyed the cinnamon bunnies, their warm gooey taste agreeable to Frisk. They all finished their food and got up to leave, but Frisk wanted to take some tea with him and say hi to Asgore. He walked over to Asgore’s booth and the large Monster’s eyes lit up after recognizing Frisk.

“Howdy, Frisk! How’s the celebration been so far?” Asgore said.

“It’s been pretty great so far. Y’all did a great job organizing it.”

Asgore beamed. “Good! I’m happy to see you’re having fun. Would you like a cup of tea to warm up with? It is a little bit chilly outside today.”

“Yes, I most certainly would!” Asgore poured Frisk a cup of tea from a large, insulated container into a disposable cup, adding some sweetener to it without asking, knowing how much Frisk would want. He handed the steaming cup to Frisk, and Frisk dropped a slip into a box sitting on the counter.

Frisk held the cup up to his nose and breathed in, enjoying the aromatic tea. He took a sip. “Mmm. That’s good stuff Asgore.”

“Thank you, Frisk.”

“Hey, I’d better go catch up with my parents. I’ll see you around.”

“Alright, Frisk. Be sure to stay until tonight. We’ll be doing a large magic display. I’ve been told it’ll be one for the ages, since we have so much space in the sky. Come find me later, I’ll make sure we have a good seat for it.” Asgore smiled at Frisk.

“Alright, see you around.” Frisk waved and walked back to his parents who were waiting for him.

They hung out for a while, playing games and enjoying shows and displays, along with multiple trips back to the food section of the celebration. Turns out one great thing about monster food is you can eat a lot of it without becoming really full. Frisk also found his friends there, and walked around the grounds with them, competing against them in some of the games, eventually stopping when Undyne’s competitive nature got out of hand.

Before long, the sky started to darken and Frisk knew it was getting close to time to find Asgore for the magic show which would start once it was dark outside. Frisk had found his parents again, and the three of them walked over to the clearing where people were beginning to gather for the show. Asgore was already sitting near the middle of the clearing, easy to spot thanks to his large size. There was a large blanket spread out underneath him, with plenty of room for others. Frisk and his family walked to him and sat down on the blanket.

“Oh! Howdy Frisk, Molly, Norman,” greeting them all in turn “glad to see you made it. Wouldn’t have wanted you to miss it.”

“Wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Not every day you get to see a huge display of magic.” Frisk said, very clearly excited.

Asgore chuckled at Frisk’s excitement. “Ohohoh! No it’s not to be missed. This one should be something special. Toriel should be joining us before too much longer. She’ll have to make sure everything is all good to go before she can relax. You know how she is.”

Speaking of Toriel, she approached the blanket and sat down next to Asgore. It Frisk noticed that Toriel had chosen that place on the blanket, even though there was space on the other side of Frisk’s parents to sit.

It got dark outside and the show started, the large open area being filled with a light, happy music. Soon the sky began to have lines of light streak across the sky, outlining several shapes which looked like Monsters, complete with facial features. These spectral Monsters started dancing, and playing across the sky. Their happy play didn’t last for long, and the music started to get low and menacing. New streaks formed the bodies and faces of a few humans, who started pointing accusingly at the group of Monsters, who did the same in return. The two group appeared to argue, and soon one of the humans drew a sword, and chased the group of Monsters off the “screen”.

Then numerous little pinpoints of light drifted across the sky, looking like dust blowing on the wind. The music turned soft and sad, almost mournful in its haunting melody. The group of monsters reformed in the sky, standing as if they were begging for mercy. They were pushed back at swordpoint by the group of humans, which was much greater in number now, into the mouth of a cave which materialized behind the Monsters. The group of humans all raised their hands, and in a flash of light a barrier was formed over the mouth of the cave, trapping the Monsters inside. The Monsters pounded their glowing hands on the new barrier for a few seconds before giving up and retreating into the cave.

The sky went dark, and the music stopped. Toriel reached over and gently grasped Asgore’s hand. He turned and looked at her, very surprised at the gesture. She, however, did not take her eyes off of the sky. He looked back to the sky and smiled, hoping that this was a sign of the future to come.

A bed of golden flowers appeared in the sky. A small human wearing a striped sweater appeared to fall, landing in the bed of flowers. The music swelled to reflect his fall and landing. Frisk recognized that the human looked very similar to him, and he blushed a little bit that they had included him in the light show.

The human got up and dusted themselves off, and proceeded to walk to the right without moving. The scenery behind the human changed to reflect the movement, and Frisk recognized the areas of the Underground, from the Ruins to New Home. The music score also changed to reflect the areas as the human walked through them. Finally the human approached the barrier and stopped at its edge, its shimmering edge appearing to spark and fizzle. The music portrayed suspense, anticipation. It seemed as if the whole world was holding its breath in that moment. Then, the human raised its hand, and a red beam of light shot forth, stopping at the barrier, becoming more and more intense. The music got louder and faster, and the barrier quivered more and more until a massive rend appeared, causing the barrier to shatter into hundreds of little sparks.

The music amplified, becoming celebratory. The human was seen being tossed up in the air by a group of Monsters, as if they were celebrating. The sun and clouds could be seen in the sky, and fireworks bigger and more complicated than Frisk had ever seen filled the sky. It was more beautiful than anything Frisk, or his family, had ever seen. Frisk couldn’t help but smile, feeling that this was the beginning of a new era of peace and prosperity.


End file.
